English country town, watching the scene that on any afternoon it might present to

us.

Before one of the principal shops a large barouche is waiting, and the head of the establishment stands at the carriage door, and
takes the
' '

esteemed orders

of some magnate

of the neighbourhood.

Meanwhile, along the pavement, move various well-known figures a spectacled solicitor in his black frock-coat
;

knots of labourers, their jackets soiled with
earth
;

a grocer's wife, with a boa and cork;

screw curls
rattled

at the

same time a farmer has

by

in his dog-cart, followed slowly

by

B

2

THE AIM OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.

the country rector's phaeton.

The

central

group
its

in the

drama

is

the large barouche with
it

occupant.

All the passers-by turn to

for

at least

a moment, and acknowledge either

by

their looks or salutations the

importance of
in
it.

the principle

that

is

embodied

The

solicitor squints at it

;

the farmer touches his
it.

hat to

it

;

the rector waves his hand to
all
:

Nor

is

this

for

between

these

minor
;

characters there are looks or salutations also

and they are each charged with a meaning
either of respect or

of condescension.

The
all

whole forms a scene with which we are
familiar
;

every object and every incident can be imagined without an effort and few scenes,
;

to

many

people, could seem more prosaic and

common-place. Let us now introduce into
characters

it

two further

an English Eadical and a Contiand let us see the way in nental Democrat
;

Far from regarding it with acquiescent apathy, they would both declare that to their eyes it was full of injus-

which

it

would

strike them.

tice

and abuses, and that

all its

details sug-

THE AIM OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.

And we will first gested the need for change. He would find little listen to the Eadical.
difficulty in telling us

what

his

change would

begin with. He would fix on the barouche, and the county magnate sitting in it and his
;

aim, he would say, was to

make

that sort of

thing impossible. The park, the country house,

and the game-preserve above all, the territorial influence, and the constant deference
paid to
it

these are the evils
fix

which the aver;

age Eadical would

upon

and he would

say they formed an incubus that at present

Let the squire or the peer be impoverished, his footmen discharged, his house shut up, his barouche used as a henstifled society.

coop, his estate sold in allotments, and his

park

out in building-plots with the changes implied in this the Eadical would be
laid

nearly

satisfied.

Next

let

us listen to

his

companion Democrat

the more extreme

and
that

logical

;

and we

shall find

such a

change would by no means satisfy him. It was a right beginning, he would say, but a
beginning only.

Having done with the park
B
2

THE AIM OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.

and the country house, he would turn with even more severity to the large shop and its owner and just as the Eadical would abolish
;

the aristocratic type of existence, so he would
abolish

that

of

the middle-class capitalist.
rich

Landlord

and

shopkeeper,
living

each,

he

would

say,

were robbers,

on the labour

of the people.

-The present status of each
;

must be equally done away with and the suburban villa is to be respected no more than
the mansion.

The Democrat,
;

in a

word, would

overturn everything

from

all

persons of pro-

perty he would abstract some of their possessions and what he left them, he would leave
;

them on new

conditions.

It is

indeed hard to

imagine any existing arrangement of a household, any existing style of furniture, any existing habits,

manners, modes of thought, or amusements, which would be left possible by
such a change as he desiderates. Certainly all that hitherto has been connected with high or with personal culture, would at breeding,

once be out of the question. The type of character that is born of leisure and study, of

THE AIM OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.
freedom from

5

common

cares, of

wide com-

merce with men, of the possession of works of for this art, and of memories of many lands
the democrat

would be able

to find

no

place.

He might

promise us a substitute, of what kind it is doubtful but it would at any rate be very different from what he had taken
;

away from
everything.

us.

So under

his regime

would be

We

should almost

feel that

we

were

living in a different planet.

It is to

some such change

as this

a change

not merely in forms of government, or in
particular lines of policy, but in the distribution of property, the relations

between

class

and

class,

and the daily conditions of the
that

private lives of each of us

many men
;

think the modern world
there seems to

is

hurrying

and

loom before them some vast
kind

social catastrophe of a

new

to history.

Nor

is

it

possible to say that their views

are without foundation.

We

are living at a

moment
social

of fierce

political

passions,

and of
politics,

passions

thinly disguised

by

which on the surface connecj; themselves with

6

THE AIM OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.
distinct questions,

many
really

and do

in their origin

depend on several. But let us study them where we will, in whatever country and whatever rank of life, and it is sufficiently
plain that there
It is
is

one idea behind

all

of them.

an idea which, though it connects itself with national and constitutional movements,
does this by the

way

only

;

and

it

rather

hides than expresses itself in the local disputes
it

animates.

Its

main concern

is

with

a

question which, though far
fact,

yet appears to be far
in virtue

more complex in more simple and
;

which, partly
appeals to
directness.

of this appearance,

the

emotions

with far greater
is

That question
;

the existing

structure of society
precision,
its

or, to

speak with more
I refer

chief structural feature.
;

to its inequalities

partly to those of nominal

rank and authority, but principally to those of Above are the private life and circumstance.
few who, without manual labour, command, at
will,

manual labour of the many. Below are the many whose labour is thus commanded,
the

and who never themselves

taste

any of the

THE AIM OF MODERN' DEMOCRACY.
choicer fruits of
it.

/

The consequence

is

that

though in the scale of classes there may at no special point be any distinct break, yet life at one extreme and life at the other are practically

two wholly
It is
is

different things.

Such
all at

is

the

arrangement with which we are
familiar.

present

common
implied
of us.

to

every civilised
less in

country, and
daily
life

more or

the
this

of

all

It is precisely

on

arrangement that modern thought is fixing itself; and for the first time in history it
is

being offered to our practical judgment as

an arrangement that can, and consequently Before our own epoch, the must, be altered.
professed party of progress aimed
equality in political rights
;

only at not at equality in

the conditions of private

life.

The

latter

had no

doubt been dreamed about by a few visionary philosophers but so little was it contemplated
;

by the
'

common

sense of men, that, amidst the
first

wildest excesses of the

French Eevolution,
'

landed and other property

was declared

c

to

be for ever sacred.'

That Eevolution attacked

the power, but not the riches, of the aris-

8

THE AIM OF MODEKN DEMOCRACY.
;

tocracy

and

it

aimed

at protecting, not at

abolishing, poverty.

Since then, however, the

professed party of progress has put a

new end
power
as
.

before
it

it

;

and though
it

it still

attacks

used to do,

does so with a further motive
social,
it

Its real

end now is

not political, equality

;

and by
thing

social equality

means a very

distinct

an equality

in material circumstances.

Accordingly, just as formerly it connected progress with the destruction of privilege, so

now

it

connects

it

with the re-distribution of
conception,
is

property.

This

special party I speak of,

amongst the every day becomof

ing clearer

;

and, in
is

the opinion

many
Its
;

observers, the party

itself increasing.

members are
and though
disguise
is

certainly very widely spread

in different places their guise or
different,

we can

still

trace their

teachings in nearly every civilised

country.

Sometimes

this
;

may be more, and sometimes
nor
is

less, qualified

its drift

always equally

obvious.
triously

But when we consider how indusit is

being propagated,
it

the passions

appeals

to,

how strong are and how far it has

THE AIM OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.
already roused them,

9

we cannot but
is,

recognise

that our existing civilisation

for

bad or
;

good, confronted by a very formidable enemy and that there is much to justify alike the hopes

and the apprehensions which are
unless

at present

dividing every nation in Europe, and which,

we

are

much

misinformed,

are

not

unknown

in America.

This fact, though already familiar to so

many

people, may,

when

thus, bluntly stated,
It will

possibly startle others.

do so

less if

they see

it

in its true proportions.

It is

by

no means meant that the hopes and apprehenspoken of are as yet universally of a very In many cases they are so slight violent kind.
sions

as to be hardly feelings at

all,

but shadows of
:

feelings that really exist elsewhere
in others,

and again

where they certainly are violent, we can afford to smile at and to pass them by as
In other words, the existing structure of society, though it is threatened, is not
fantastic.

yet tottering

;

and there

avert or to prepare for

ample time to the catastrophe. Thus
is still

grave as the situation

is,

we may view it

with

-

10

THE AIM OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.
It will suggest anticipations

out excitement.
to us,

which we

shall not let
it

it

inspire.

It will

rouse our anxiety, but

will not disturb

our

judgment.
vulsion
see,
is

We shall see that

some

social con;

not in the least impossible

we

shall

on the contrary, that many things tend to produce it but we shall see also that as yet
;

it is

not inevitable, and
to panic

we

shall yield equally

little

and to a sense of
shall

security.

If

we

are wise,

what we
if

do

is this.

Eecogone aim

nising

what,

a struggle really happened,

would, as matters

now

stand, be

its

and object, we

shall

set

ourselves betimes,

in a true scientific spirit, to inquire carefully

how

far this

object

is

attainable,

or

what

would be the
attain
it

results of
this

any great attempt to
a

and

for

double

reason.

Could any positive conclusions on these points be arrived at, and forced on the world's attention as verified truths of science, they

would

certainly leave their impress on the present

course of

affairs,

and

it

is

quite possible that

they might profoundly change it. In any case they would put us in the only right position,

THE AIM OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.
either to

11

understand the movement of the

present, or to provide for

and face the future.

Strange, however, as the fact

may seem, the

inquiry I speak of has never yet been at-

tempted.

The world

is fast

dividing itself into

two

hostile parties, the

one denying and the
social
;

other

asserting

certain

propositions.

The

propositions are distinct

the assertions

and the denials are vehement
for their
scientific

;

but

if

we

ask

basis,

both sides will be

equally unable to answer us.

Nothing

will

be

forthcoming in the shape of connected reasoning that would be for a moment recognised by

any

scientific thinker.

I

do not say that there

might not be scattered arguments, each possessing separately a true scientific character
:

such, indeed,

may

many

writers.

be found in the pages of But no writer as yet has ever
systematically.

dealt with
little force,

them

They

are of

because they have not been enough insisted on and of little significance, because
;

they have not been followed up or connected.

Thus

on the subject are growing daily more marked and positive, they though
opinions

]2
are

THE AIM OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.
opinions
;

they are not scientific knowledge nor can one set of them definitely They are thus both useless dispel the other.
only,
in

any practical controversy.

Each may

satit
;

isfy the

man who

is

not inclined to doubt

but

cannot compel the reluctant assent of any one to whose passions or interests it would be likely to prove hostile. The result is this,
it

that

men

are as

much

in the

with regard to social before Hume's day with regard to economic

dark in our day problems as they were

problems

;

and

for a precisely similar reason.
is

The

science as yet

missing by which alone
It is as

completely non-existent at the close of the nineteenth
century,
as
political

they can be elucidated.

economy was

at

the

beginning of the eighteenth.

The Conservatives

illustrate this fact

far

more

clearly than the Democrats,

though they

are not in reality such complete examples of
it.

they criticise, for instance, any scheme that seems to tamper with property

When

and such

essentially are the special

schemes

they contend against

they have practically

THE AIM OF MODEKX DEMOCRACY.
;

13

but one way of condemning it they call it a scheme of theft and if they can justify this description of it, they seem to think that the
:

last

word has been

said.

And

once no doubt

they would have been perfectly right in thinkOnce theft was a word weighted with ing so.

common odium
ject

;

and

it

discredited

any pro-

on which
this, is

it

could be fixed effectually.

But

precisely the point at

which the

great
tives,

change has occurred. The Conservaas we have seen already, are now faced
theft in a

by a theory which places
different light
;

wholly
its

and

if

we

give the

word

ordinary and immemorial meaning,
ing to this theory,
is is

it,

accord-

not a

In other words,
ately that the

it

now

but a necessity. maintained delibersin,

key to

all social

progress

is

some

re-distribution of property,

and some violation

of rights that have been hitherto held sacred.

Thus
and

to call the democrats a set of thieves
is

merely to apply names to them which they have no wish to repudiate and their opponents, if they think in this way
confiscators,
;

to discredit them, are

begging the very point

14

THE AIM OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.
it is

which

their first business to prove.
is

They

must prove that property

a thing which

should be respected, before they can secure a verdict against those who do not respect it.

The whole

situation

is

really contained in that.
is

Property in our day
position.
It
is

theoretically in a

new

the defendant now, not the

and the jury consists of the millions who have least obvious cause to
plaintiff as formerly,

be tender with
a strange state
see
it

it.

no doubt, may seem of affairs, but the sooner we
This,

in

its

true light the better.
all

We

must

realise

once for

that the old conservative
this

arguments are by

time wholly obsolete.

The

were once thought sacred, the moral principles that were once thought absolute we have to defend them,
old
traditions that

not to appeal to them
see

;

or rather

we have

to

they are defensible. Thus it would be idle to show, in the event of any great confiscation,

how far

how
'

unjustly the few would suffer.
'

The only reply would
for
the few
!

be,

So much
to

the

worse
at

If property

is

be defended

all, it

must be defended on wider grounds, and

THE AIM OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.
in a

15

very much deeper way. It must be shown that an attack on it would not injure the few
only, but

that
;

on the many an accurate and
either or both of

would equally bring ruin and this can be done only by
it

scientific

demonstration of

two

distinct positions.
it

One
do

is,

that

however desirable
it

might be
that

to equalise property,
to

would be impossible
single

so for

more than a

moment

;

the equality of such a

moment would be one
consternation, not

of want, horror, and
prosperity
;

of

and

that

the
it,

old

inequalities

would again

arise out of

only changed in

having their harsher features exaggerated. The other is that, even supposing that

permanent equality were not thus unattainable, but that it could be really established
as a stable social condition, its establishment

would be not
poorest classes
equality
tal
:

to

the

interest

of even the

in other words, that the in-

now surrounding us is not an accidendefect which we must minimise as far as
;

possible
efficient

but that

it

is,

on the contrary, an
that
it is

cause of civilisation

the

16

THE AIM OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.
;

cause of plenty, but not the cause of want

and that want would be increased, not cured,

by

its

abolition.

Such are the positions which the Conservative party must prove, or at least one
or other of them.
the least avail.
tion that

Nothing less will be of Should we find on examina;

we
that

are unable to do this

should

we

find

property

is

capable of being

equalised permanently, and that the majority

would

profit

by

its

equalisation, then such of
life

us as belong to the higher ranks of

must

conclude that, as a

class,

our days are already
philanthropists,
;

numbered.
shall hail the

If

we

are

we
are
it.

coming change

and

if

we

philosophers,

we

shall

at least

submit to

Should our examination, on the other hand,
lead us to an opposite conclusion, should
find that the

we

above positions embody scientific truths, and that they can further be rigidly

shown

to

do so

shown

to

do so by a

syste-

matic appeal to facts
placed property in a
its

we shall then have new state of security

;

enemies will be reduced to the ranks of

THE AIM OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.
either quacks or criminals
;

17

the present fer-

ment of opinion
their

will subside gradually,

and

the friends of progress, though they will not
relinquish
efforts,

will

turn them in

another direction.

To produce, however,
results
is

either

of

these

possible in one

way

only

the

way

which I have just now indicated. The matter must be made the subject of its own special and that science yet has to be science
;

created.

I propose in the present
its

volume to

point out
facts

limits,
it

and the exact order of

take cognisance. I propose, further, to review the most important of these last, and to state in outline the
will

of which

chief

general

conclusions which,

scientific

reasoning,

we

shall

by strict be forced to

arrive at from them.

Here, however, I must anticipate three
sets of objections.

In the

first

place,

it

may be argued on

behalf of the democratic party that such a
science as that I have spoken of, so far fron.

being unattempted, has been already long

ir

C

18

THE AIM OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.

existence,

and claims

as

its

students a whole

school of Continental speculators.

Such men

may be

pointed to as Proudhon, Louis Blanc,
;

and not only may it be said that they have made great scientific discoveries, but discoveries which have had
a momentous practical influence.

and Karl Marx

Indeed

it

may be
this.

said that I

have just been admitting

In the second place,

it

may be argued on

behalf of the conservative party that the doctrines of the

above thinkers are answered and

refuted

by those of the orthodox economists, or the more recent speculations of sociolosuch as Mr. Herbert Spencer; that the

gists,

supposed missing science is merely political economy, or sociology under another name,

and that thus the
fully occupied.

field

of discussion

is

already

In the third place, supposing both these objections dismissed, there remains another,

which may presently seem more forcible. It may be admitted that the truths which I
propose to deal with scientifically have with-

THE AIM OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.
out doubt never been so dealt with
it
;

19
this,

but

may be argued, is for a very excellent reason. It may be argued that we know them sufficiently by the light of our common sense that we ah appeal to them as self-evident in our
;
1

daily conduct
set

and conversation, and that to

them

forth with a

show of

scientific

exac-

titude

would be nothing more than an empty
ceremony.

intellectual

All these objections I shall meet in their

proper order.

With regard

to

the doctri-

naires of Continental democracy, in spite of

the influence and seeming coherence of their
systems, I shall

show that
all

in reality
;

not

men

of science at

that

if

they are here and

there they have hit on a right conclusion,,
this

has happened only by accident

;

that they

have had no glimpse of the true inductive method that they have merely reasoned from
;

certain
their
fact

assumed

first

principles

;

and that

main teachings have as little relation to as had the physical speculations of Thales,
to

or the dreams of the mediaeval alchemists.

With regard

political

economy, I

shall

c a

20

THE AIM OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.
that though
it it

show
and I

touches the science in
it
;

question,

barely overlaps the borders of

shall

show a

similar, though not quite

the same, thing with regard to sociology, and

other allied studies.

Finally, I

shall

show

that though certain of the facts I shall dwell

upon are without doubt common-place, this by no means renders a further study of them
superfluous.
I shall remind the reader

how

the
less

essence of scientific knowledge consists
in the discovery of facts that are alto-

gether strange to us, than in the analysis and

arrangement of facts that are at least parand I shall hope to convince tially familiar him that, at least in the present case, com;

mon
than
sense.

sense

is

a less advance upon ignorance

scientific

knowledge

is

upon common

two of these three positions will be explained in detail presently. But the first lies on the threshold of the whole inquiry,
last

The

and must be dealt with thoroughly before

we can proceed
I

further.
social

have said that the modern

problem

THE AIM OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.
;

21
}

has never yet been studied scientifically but I have not said that it has not been studied
at
all.

On

the contrary, although there
it,

is

no

true science of

there

is

a voluminous body

of doctrines which aspires to pass for such,

and which has probably had a more marked effect upon action than has ever been had by any other speculations. These doctrines are and the first point sufficiently unmistakable
;

I dwelt

upon was
influence.

their existence

and

their

immense

avowed leaders

They are those of the of the modern democratic
in

movement
two

;

and these men stand alone

points.

They are not alone only
;

in at-

tacking our social inequalities

but they are

alone in even claiming to have studied
scientifically,

them

or pronounced any reasoned opi-

nion with regard to their origin, their justice,
or their stability. 1
1

Thus the present

struggle,

show presently, utterly fail to see at the question ought to be grasped ; and the orthodox economists, as I shall show presently also, assume the point at issue and make hardly any effort to discuss it. What the
Sociologists, as I shall

what point

democratic doctrinaires contend

is,

not that the conclusions of

the economists do not follow from their premisses, but that

22

THE AIM OF MODEKN DEMOCKACY.
it is

in so far as

other than physical, has, up

to the present
sided.

moment, been altogether one-

All that bears any semblance of organised thought or system has belonged to the attacking party; and, force excepted,
it

has

been met by nothing but an obsolete dogmatism that cannot even explain itself.
This would be true in the history of human action, even if it were not true, as it is, in the
history of

human

thought.

In other words,

there might be a scientific literature of con-

servatism as voluminous as that of democracy, but it would not affect the argument. For it
is

a literature, if

it

exists at all, of

which the

these premisses postulate a certain condition of society, which,
it undoubtedly does exist at present, yet demands and Whilst the present condition lasts, capable of alteration. they not only admit but insist that the theories of the econo-

though

is

mists are rigidly sound and true.

Their argument

is

that that

condition can be altered, and a society produced in which they shall be true no longer. Thus, though in the event of any
practical struggle the present race of economists might be personally in opposition to the Democrats, this would be for other reasons than those which their own science supplies them with. The theoretic tenets by which the two parties are dis-

tinguished not only do not militate, but they do not even meet. What the economists assert the Democrats do not deny what
;

the Democrats assert the economists have never adequately considered.

THE AIM OP MODEBN DEMOCRACY.
world knows nothing.
public opinion.
It

23

has had no effect on

No

class or

party has ever
;

1

mastered or been moved by its teachings and in the world of action, knowledge is nonexistent
influence.

that
If

does not exert some practical

we

turn, on the other hand, to

the

speculative doctrines of democracy,

we

shall detect their

operation in nearly every popular movement that has marked the present century.

The Democrats,

in

rebelling

against the established order of things, have

always encouraged and justified themselves by an appeal to certain doctrines which they take
to in

be

scientific

truths.

The

Conservatives,

repressing

these rebellions, have neither

wanted theoretic encouragement nor cared about theoretic justification. They have had
their convictions certainly,

no

less

than their

adversaries

;

and

these, to

say the least of
;

them, have been equally firm and honest but they have rested on a different basis.

They have been

inherited, not acquired.

They

have been regarded as tilings so sacred and self-evident that it would be as idle to prove

24

THE AIM OF MODEEN DEMOCEACY.
it

their truth as
it
;

would be wicked

to question

and thus those who have not only questioned but denied it have been treated less as
mistaken men, than as lunatics or as dangerous criminals. They have been repressed or neglected, but they

have never yet been refuted.
treatment that their grow-

It is largely to this

ing power

is

due.

From

their being the only

party that has professed scientifically to defend
itself,

a superstition has gone abroad that they

are the only party capable of scientific defence ;

and so widely
itself,

is

this

superstition spreading
it

that
it

many

secretly yield to

who

re-

gard
it

with the utmost horror. Not only does strengthen the Democrats, but it troubles
;

the Conservatives

and many of the
it

latter

entertain a dark misgiving that
after all, the

represents,

actual

truth of things.

This

must be a

familiar fact to every one

who

has

watched modern opinion
of society.
often

in the higher ranks for instance,
it

The remark,

may
only

be heard now-a-days that

is

natural for the poorer classes to be
crats
;

Demo*

and the reason given

is

that

they

THE AIM OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.
have everything
to

25

gain by a change' Perhaps more frequent still are the even plainer ' sayings, that Things by this time have passed
beyond our control ; and that thing left for us but to wait
comes.'
'

4

there is nothe

titt

crash

The
is

significance

of

this It is

helpless

despondency

a piece of evidence of the strongest possible kind that, so far as science and accurate reason go,
unmistakable.

conservatism possesses as yet neither defence

nor explanation of itself. I therefore venture to say, though I shall prove the fact more fully afterwards that,
with regard to the question of progress in the democratic sense of the word, the only
doctrines extant which even pretend to system,

or which have ever had any intellectual influence, are the doctrines of the

Democrats
,'

themselves.

The

first step,

therefore, towards

establishing a true social science

must be

the;
ati

complete exposure of those doctrines which
present usurp the place of
it.

26

THE PRINCIPLES OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.

CHAPTER

H,

THE PRINCIPLES OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.
I PROPOSE, then, to
ral

examine

briefly the gene-

theory of modern democracy, and the methods by which it has been arrived at.

and Mr. Bright and Mr. Chamberwould differ from all four, or may very
;

likely

seem to have next

to nothing in

com-

mon

with them.

The

reader, therefore,
it is

may
well

be inclined to argue that, though

enough for general purposes to regard the Democrats as a single class, yet we can by no

means do

this for

the purposes of accurate

THE PRINCIPLES OP MODERN* DEMOCRACY,
criticism.

27

Such, however,
differences

is

not really the
of,

case.

important as they may be practically, are differences not as to principles, but mainly as to the application

The

spoken

of principles.

The

principles themselves are
;

in all cases the

same

and

it

is

with these
If

alone that

we

are here concerned to deal.
these to be false,

we can show
themselves.

we may

leave

the disputes based on

them

to take care of

Let us consider, then, what these principles are principles which unite Mr. Chamberlain
with Proudhon, and Mr. Bright with Louise
Michel.

They are very simple, and can be very easily stated. The first and foremost of them is contained in the abstract proposition,
that
the perfection

of society involves

social'

equality.

Let us be careful to see what the

words exactly mean. They do not mean that for equality is the same thing as perfection equality in itself might be merely equality in
destitution
is

but they do mean that inequality The essentially an evil and an imperfection.
:

Democrat postulates, no

less

than the Conser-

28

THE PRINCIPLES OP MODERN DEMOCRACY. and even the increase

vative, the conservation

of existing material luxuries. But, these being granted, his distinctive contention is that the
chief evil of
life
is

the unequal distribution
consists of such

of them

;

and that progress
it

changes as tend to make

equal.

This doc-

trine resolves itself into the following train of

reasoning.
tributable

Happiness

is

proportionate to dis;

means of enjoyment

of these means

there

only a certain quantity, which has to be distributed amongst a certain number of
is

and consequently when one class has more than an equal share, somewhere else there
people
;

is

a corresponding

deficit.

The luxury of one
;

man means
another.
to riches

the privation of another the high rank of one man means the degradation of

Thus, happiness being proportionate

and

social status, social inequality,

in its very nature, implies unhappiness some-

where.

It

is,

in a word, identical with social

wrong. Accordingly, the end of progress being
the diffusion of human happiness, progress
sentially a constant
is es-

approach towards equality.
first

Such

is

the great

principle of all

THE PRINCIPLES OF MOLER5 DEMOCRACY.

29

modern Democrats, from the extremest
most moderate sections of them.
is

to the far it
is

How

held that equality can ever be absolute,

a

minor matter altogether. D
tains that

One
;

section main-

thinks

we can reach it another section that we can only approximate to it
all

;

but they
near

maintain alike that

it is

the ideal

condition to

we

get

work towards, and that the more to it, the more advanced is our
That
is

civilisation.

the principle, and

it is

in

every case the same. Proudhon differed from Louis Blanc only as to the best means of
applying
it.

Mr. Bright

differs

from Proudhon
its

only as to the degree to which he thinks

application possible, or in the consistency with

which he wishes

to apply

it.

Should the reader be inclined to doubt
let

this,

him think

for a

moment on

the methods of

English Eadicals whenever they seek directly to gain the adherence of the people. They come

forward as the champions of social justice, and their avowed mission is to reform abuses. This

and principal task place these abuses in the most odious
being
so, their first

is

to

light.

30

THE PRINCIPLES OP MODERN DEMOCRACY.

possible,

and

to rouse, as

much

as possible, the

people's passion against them.

Now, how do

they do this? Always in one way. They represent whatever abuse may be at the time in
question, not as a direct

wrong done

to their

hearers personally, but rather as an insult to

general social justice.

Let us take, for

in-

stance, the case of perpetual pensions or else

a grant

to

some member of the royal
orator,

family.
at

No
if

Radical

denouncing these

a

meeting, pretends that the sums in question,
divided amongst the nation, would yield to

his

own

audience
;

so

much

as a farthing a
is

head annually

or

that any one

appre-

ciably injured by the application of

them

which
tactics

he
are

denounces.
of

His

a very different
is,

argumentative kind. His

understood end
hearers
;

of course, the good of his

but he does not suggest to them this end directly. He does not try to make them
discontented with their

own

poverty, but to

make them
riches
;

indignant with

other people's

and the virtual
first

question that

he

always

addresses to

them

is

not,

Why

THE PRINCIPLES OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.
should you have so
others have so
little ?

31

but,

Why

should

much ?

This fact appears even

more

plainly in the Eadical

method of attack-

ing the landed the
first

class is

aristocracy. Nearly always dwelt on with regard to this point not the evil that its existence does the

community, but the exceptional position that
it itself

occupies.

It is decried
it

because
is

it is

enviable rather than because

injurious.
in

A

quaint example of this

is

to

be found

the following argument, which

is exceedingly with contemporary Eadical writers. popular
it is

The owners,

said, of four-fifths of the soil

of England could be gathered together in a
single assembly

room, and be addressed

easily
this
is

1 by the voice of a single speaker.

Now

may
it

be no doubt true, but for what reason

dwelt upon ? The mere fact that an aristocracy could stand in a single room need in
1

Mr. Arthur Arnold dwells much on this fact in his volume on Free Land. It forms also the one subject of two recent volumes, which are specially addressed to the people, entitled Our Old Nobility; and the present writer, not long
since,

saw

it

placarded as a startling truth in the shop windows

of nearly all the Radical pamphlet-sellers at Leeds.

32

THE PRINCIPLES OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.

be fraught with no more evil to the community, than the fact that a monarch could
itself
sit

in a single chair, or than the fact

equally

true

that the inhabitants of the whole world

could stand on the Isle of Wight. Its sole significance from the Eadical point of view

depends on the striking way in which
bits

it

exhi-

a social inequality.

It

is

designed to

inform the masses, not
misery, but

how

near they are to

how

far they are

from splendour
is

;

and

its

immediate tendency

to excite the

wish in them not to raise themselves, but to

humble
to their

others.

Now

the Eadicals, according

own

principles, are perfectly right

when they argue
lity really
it

in this

way.

If social equa-

may

be the chief condition of happiness, most legitimately be put forward as
for.

the immediate end to be struggled

Nor

would there be any force in the objection that for if, as this was merely an appeal to envy
;

I say, the doctrine of equality be true,

we
is is

must consider envy

to be as

sound a guide

in politics as reverence

by

religious

men

considered to be in religion.

Just as one

THE PRINCIPLES OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.
jealousy for
jealousy for
tlie

33

honour of God, so the other is I the general welfare of man.

have merely reminded the reader
are inconsistent with their

how

the

English Eadicals argue, not to show that they

own

principles,
is

but

that their fundamental principle

identical

with that of

all

other Democrats.

There,

every

member

of the professed party of pro-

gress meets the rest in unanimity.

The Gercom-

man
by

socialist in his prison, the Parisian
exile, the

munist in his

English Eadical Minister

his trout-stream or in his conservatory,

each

bases his opinions on the same fundamental
principle, that the perfection of society in-

volves social equality, and that the

more near
is

we

get to

it,

the

more advanced

our

civilisation.

This principle, however, though the key to the common creed of democracy, is by no

means the only principle agreed to by all Democrats nor for practical purposes is it
;

even the most important. Its importance depends entirely on another principle implied in it, which though from the outset we have

D

34

THE PRINCIPLES OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.
stating
it, it is

presumed without
is is

now
:

requisite

to put in distinct form.

It is this

Not only
it

inequality an imperfection in theory, but

an imperfection remediable to such an extent in practice that the more marked forms of
it,

can be entirely done away with. The Democrats do not merely maintain, like
at all events,

curious social analysts, that the wealth of the

a precipitate from the proper competence of the many; but they assert also, as

few

is

vigorous

men

of action,

it

is

a kind of hoard

which has been mechanically got together, and which could readily and with advantage be put back again
taken.
in the quarters

from which

it

was

Were this

not the case, they would be

nothing but a set of sentimentalists bewailing the injustice of life, just as other men

might bewail the shortness of it. They might nor would sigh, but they would not agitate
;

a practical

man

find

any point to discuss
they maintained
that
it

with

them.

Unless

social equality

can be, to discuss whether

ought to be would be a mere discussion
the clouds
;

in

or,

more properly speaking, there

THE PRINCIPLES OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.

35

would be no discussion

at

all.

The most

bigoted aristocrat would not be an aristocrat in Utopia indeed, if the imagination were to
;

be the only thing that guided him, he would advocate equality no less than the wildest
socialist.

He would
all

raise all his citizens to the

highest possible level.
give

Perhaps, too, he would
;

them
still, '

wings and wish ing-caps

or,

better

he might make them angels instead C2 C
are not concerned, however, with
;

of men.

We

any such dreams as these

we

are concerned

only with realities, actual or potential. Taking the earth and its inhabitants as they have

been hitherto, or
be,
is

social

may possibly come to equality an end we can practically
as they

work towards,
near to

so as ever for a

be appreciably more near to
it,

permanence to it and if more
;

to be

any better
that
solid

off

than

we

are

?

The Democrats declare

it is.

Here

at last

we touch upon
have a direct
to

ground.

We

have no
;

abstract question as to

what ought to be we proposition as to what is, and as
be.

have a proposition which can be proved to be either false or true,
will

what

We
D 2

36
-or,

THE PRINCIPLES OF MODERN DEMOCRACY
at all events,

shown to have some foundaof one thing with regard
It is

tion or none.
to
it

Now
at

we may

once be certain.

not a

from any order of events, either happening now, or that ever have happened formerly; for the Democrats themselves admit
generalisation

that the equality they wish to produce has

never yet coexisted with the civilisation they wish to preserve. It must, therefore, be a deduction from a certain further generalisation,

and what

this

is,

it is

not hard to discover.
the change in

The Democrats,

in declaring
tell

question to be possible,

us also the kind
it.

of means by which

we
all

are to accomplish

These are familiar to

of us

;

and

it

will

be

enough

to

name

a few of them

nationalisation

of the land, a graduated income-tax, abolition

of rank, a normal day of labour, compulsory
State education, and, above
frage,
all,

universal suf-

which

will enable the people to pass

what laws they please. In other words, the means for producing equality are a series of
changes in existing social
institutions.

Now

what

is

implied in this?

There

is

evidently

THE PRINCIPLES OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.
implied in
that
it

37

the following general doctrine,
institutions of
its

by changing the

a society,
;

we

are able to change
itself into

structure

and

this

again resolves
trine
still,

the

more general doc-

that the structure of society depends

on
a

its institutions.

That

is

to say, if

we put

it

little

more

fully:

The broad

distinction

between rich and poor, privileged and unprivileged, rulers and ruled, producers and
non-producers, which has characterised every
civilisation that

has hitherto existed in the
its

world, depends for

maintenance on those

laws and forms of government, which in any

given case are, no doubt, its immediate sanction. Here we have the exact generalisation we were looking for. The former proposition as to the
possibility of

more or

less

producing equality than a deduction from
:

is

nothing

this.

The
of

reasoning runs thus

Laws and forms

government represent some deliberate human purpose this purpose hitherto has been that
;

of the few only, and

it

has been directed by

them only

to securing their

own

advantage.
if

It is therefore

argued that the

many,

they

38
will

THE PBINCXPLES OF MODEEN DEMOCKACT.
but combine, can reverse
this state

of

things,

and give
that
is

effect to

their

own purpose

instead

to say, the advantage of the can establish new forms of They many. government, and make new laws and just as
;

the old institutions produced inequality,
will the

so

new

ones produce equality.

Put

more
on

briefly, this
:

amounts to the following
society depends

syllogism
its
;

The structure of
;

institutions

tions

therefore

we can change its instituwe can change its structure.
structure

Accordingly, that the

of society
call

depends on

its

institutions,

we may

the

major

premiss
;

of the
its

modern democratic
truth or falsehood, the

syllogism

and with

conclusion stands or

falls.

have thus pushed the matter a step farther back but we have not even yet come to anything that can be compared immedi;

We

ately with facts.

For

this

premiss

itself,

no
a

more than the conclusion drawn from
generalisation from
It is confessedly

it, is

what

is

or ever has been.

a statement as to a sequence
of which the world of

of cause and

effect

THE PRINCIPLES OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.
fact

39

has as yet offered no example. Using the word structure in the sense we are now
giving
it,

the structure of

all civilised societies

has hitherto been the same.
essentially that

It

has been

which

exists in

Europe now.

There has always at one extreme been wealth and honour, and at the other obscurity and comparative indigence. In some cases the
inequality

may have

caricatured

itself,
;

as in

the case of the Asiatic despotisms
it

in others

may have

disguised

itself,

as

in the case

of the Italian or Greek republics.

But

it

has always been present wherever civilisation has been present ; and though it may have

changed its form, as it did during the great French Eevolution, yet not even then did it
change

more

than

that.

It

simply

re-

appeared as another species of feudalism, which Louis Blanc" said ' was even worse than
the old.'

In a word,

many

as

have been the

changes made in the institutions of various countries, none of these changes have changed o o
the social structure. 1
1

Accordingly, whether or

"When we speak of institutions in this connection, and of the possibility of a change in the democratic sense being made

40

THE

PKItfCIPLES

OP MODEKN DEMOCRACY.

no the
it

latter really does

depend on the former,
dependence in any It will, of course, be
hitherto in insti;

has never shown

its

overt fact of history.
said that the changes

made

tutions have not been of the right kind
this

but

only illustrates what I say more strongly. It at once shows us that, however the democratic premiss has

been arrived

at, it

has not

been arrived at from a study of anything that has actually happened, nor has it ever

even been verified by a single comparison with it. It is plain, however, that, in its
character of

a

scientific

doctrine,

it

must

have been arrived at from a study of facts somehow indirectly, if not directly and
;

since
in them,
details,

it

is

not a generalisation from such

but
;

we do not mean a change that will alter their minor we mean a change that will invert their general
and any reforms that
fail to

tendency

present point of view, not changes at

touch this are, from our all. They are, on the

contrary, conservative, not progressive ; and instead of tending to abolish inequalities, they tend rather to prevent the masses from resenting them. The action, for instance, of trades unions
is

regarded by extreme Democrats as treacherous to the popular cause ; and though higher wages have been secured, by their

means, to the workmen, the result of make them content with their chains.

this, it is said, is

only to

THE PRINCIPLES OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.
facts itself,
it

41

must be a deduction from some
is,

other doctrine, that either
to be.

or
is

is

supposed

What
is

doctrine, then,

this ?

and
Here,

what order of
again,

facts does it refer to ?
it is

a problem which

not very hard

to answer. I

have observed already that the equality
is

of

modern democracy

essentially a material
fruits of

equality

an equal sharing in the

ex-

isting material civilisation, or, in other

words,
plain,
is es-

of the world's existing wealth.

It is

therefore, that the democratic premiss
sentially

some proposition about wealth.
fact,

It is

a proposition, in
distribution of

about the cause of the
it

it,

and

declares this to be

laws and forms of government. Now, one thing is plain. Whether or no laws and forms
of government are the cause of the distri-

bution of wealth, they are certainly not the cause of the production of it. The democratic
premiss, therefore,
is

virtually a statement that

the cause of
distinct from,

the production

of wealth
of,

is

and independent
of
it.

the cause

of the distribution

This necessarily

42

THE PRINCIPLES OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.

presupposes some doctrine already arrived at, as to what the cause of production is and
;

that doctrine

must be the generalisation from
is

which the democratic premiss

deduced.

Now

that doctrine

we

arrive at in

two ways

;

not only from the logical necessities of the case, but from the explicit and formal statements of
the democratic thinkers themselves.
doctrine
so
It is the
little

often

proclaimed, and so

understood or examined, that the cause of
wealth
is

all

Thus the Gotha Programme of the German Labour Party an acknowlabour.

ledged epitome of the most serious democratic

thought on the Continent
following sentence
all wealth
'
:

begins with the
is the

Labour
;

source of

and

all culture
is

and as productive

labour generally

only possible through society,

hence the aggregate product of labour belongs
to

members of society, each member having a right to an equal share, in accordance with his reasonable wants, and each sharing
all

the

equally the universal duty of work.'
cisely the
less

And

prein a

same

principles,

though stated

formal way, are at the root also of our

THE PEIXCIPLIS OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.

43

modern English Eadicalism.

Mr. Bright, for

instance, in addressing an audience of

working
fol-

men, introduced, amidst loud cheers, the
lowing significant sentences ' said, as I was on my way to
to
*
:

Just now,'

he

this place to

speak

you, I watched

in the street a magnificent carin that carriage were two

riage pass

me; and
did. did.

splendidly -dressed ladies.

Who made

that car-

riage?
dresses ?

You

Who made

those splendid

You

Have your wives any such

carriages to drive in?
clothes

of that kind ?

Do your wives ever wear I watched that carriage
it

farther,
before

and I saw where
house?

stopped.

It stopped

a

stately house, with

Who

built that

an imposing portico. You did. Do you and
'

your wives

live in

any such houses as

that ?

Further, that this doctrine should be the

foundation of the democratic theory is not merely a matter of history but it is, as I say,
;

a matter of logical necessity also. The theory implies the doctrine, and could support itself

on no other
reflect

;

as

we

shall see readily if

we

what the theory is.
re-distribute

The theory

is

that

we can

the existing wealth of

44

THE PRINCIPLES OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.

the world, and yet not diminish the amount

of

it

;

or, in plainer language, that if

we can
and

take from the wealthy the excessive wealth

which
divide

they
it

now

consume

annually,

amongst the poor, there will still annually be the same wealth produced. Now, this plainly can be true on one supposition
only, that the wealthy classes, as such, are

connected with wealth in no other
the accidental appropriators of
its
it
;

way but
and that

as
in

actual production they have no part what:

ever

otherwise, to eliminate

them would be
whole demovalue

to diminish production-

The
of

validity, therefore, of the

cratic theory depends
this doctrine of

on the

scientific

wealth and labour.

Now

here

we have

a doctrine at last which brings
facts.
is

us face to face with
position as to

what

have a proand has been what

We

happens every day, and can every day be seen to happen not a deduction from this, as to
;

what can happen, but has never happened yet. Wealth is being produced every day about us.

The cause

of

its

production

is

every day in

THE PKINCIPLES OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.
operation
;

4
is

and the doctrine that

its

cause

labour

is

a statement, true or

false,

about a
in the

process taking place at this
nearest mill or

moment

nearest

mill

and which, in the or workshop, could be either

workshop

;

disproved or verified. This, then, is the point at which the democratic theory
shall begin,

must be

tested

;

and here

we

and indeed end, our examination

of

it.

If labour really be the ultimate cause

of wealth, then wealth can be distributed as
the Democrats declare
it

can.

Its distribution

depends on laws and forms of government. The structure of society depends on its institutions
:

we can change

the institutions, and

we

can, therefore, change the structure.

In a

word, the democratic theory
progress of democracy

is

true,

and the

is irresistible. is

On

the

side of the Conservatives there

no more to

be

said,

except pitifully to ask for a short

reprieve.

On the
of wealth

other hand,

if

we

find that the cause

is

something different from what the
states
it

above doctrine

to be, then all these

46

THE PRINCIPLES OP MODERN DEMOCRACY.
fall

deductions

utterly

room will be
This
is

left for

to the ground, and a completely different set.

the result to which I hope to conduct
I propose,
life,

the reader.

actual facts of

to

by appealing to the show that labour is not

the ultimate cause of wealth, and that, apart from other causes, it would be utterly powerless
to'

produce

it

;

consequently, that the

distribution of wealth which the democratic

programme demands is a scientific impossibility,
and that no laws could accomplish
institutions, but that, on the
it
;

that the
its

structure of society does not depend on

contrary, the
;

institutions
if

depend on the structure and that material equality is ever to be secured at
will

be secured only by the destruction of civilisation, not by any distribution of the
all, it

finer existing fruits of

it.

In other words, I

shall

show that the

principles of

modern

de-

mocracy or radicalism, being deduced, as they are, from an absolutely false generalisation,
tend inevitably, in proportion as they are acted
on, to increase the very evils

which

it is

their

avowed object

to

remedy

;

and that by fixing

THE PRINCIPLES OF MODERN DEMOCRACY.

47

the imagination of the masses on an impossible kind of progress, it is really directing them

backwards towards a second barbarism, the horrors and privations of which are now hardly
conceivable.

48

CHAPTEE m.
THE PSEUDO-SCIENCE OF MODEEN DEMOCRACY.

To

repeat again, then, what

we

arrived at in

the last chapter, the entire theory of modern

democracy, with all the hopes it encourages, and with all the measures it advocates, depends

on the doctrine that the cause of wealth
labour.

is

Let us

now
will

inquire accurately

what

the democratic theorists

mean by
really

it.

And, however

first, it

be well to point out

that,

false

what they

mean may

be,

there are certain falsehoods which their lan-

guage seems to imply, but which they themselves would be the first people to repudiate,
and with which
tax them.
it

would be

idle

and unfair to

Having thus disposed of what they
shall

do not mean, we

be freer to deal with

what they

do.

MODERN DEMOCRACY.
For
this

49

purpose,

let

us turn once more to

those sentences of Mr. Bright's, which were
just

now

quoted.

There, in
is

a

plain

and

highly popular way, labour
the cause of wealth
;

stated to be

and certain forms of

wealth are particularly specified, which, being intended to prove the statement, must at all
events

show

its

meaning.

These are
fine

fine

clothes, a fine carriage,

and a

house

;

and

the relation of labour to these three productions
is

a type, for the Democrat, of its relation

to

wealth generally.

What,
his

then, did Mr.
as to the

Bright

mean

to

tell

workmen
it

relation of labour to a silk dress ?

He

did not
silk-

mean

to tell
;

them that

produced the

worms
it

nor, in the case of the carriage, that
;

produced the wood or the leather
it

nor, in

the case of the house, that
stone or the marble.
therefore, that
it is
it

produced the

He
is

did not

mean

to say,
;

the only cause of wealth

but simply that

the only

human

cause.

Of other causes there may be any number,
such as
soil,

climate, geographical position,
;

and the distribution of coal and minerals

and

E

50

THE PSEUDO-SCIENCE OF

the amount and quality of production

may

depend on these as much

as

it

does on labour.

The democratic
denial of
trary,
is

doctrine,

then, contains no

this

:

the Democrat, on the
it.

conis

quite ready to admit

But he

content to leave the question in the hands of for it is not a question skilled economists
;

that touches his

own argument.

He

urges no
;

claim on behalf of inanimate nature

he

is

not a delegate from particular soils or climates, demanding for them a share in human wealth
;

therefore

it

is

nothing to

him how

far they
is

have helped to produce it. on behalf of human beings

His only claim
;

amongst them alone that human wealth can be divided he
it is
;

does not ask, therefore, whether man has more but to do with its production than nature
;

whether one class of
it

men

has more to do with

than another

class, or

whether certain classes
it

have anything to do with
attention
is

at

all.

His whole
his doc-

confined to

this.
is

Thus
to

trine of wealth

and labour

be taken with
to the

an important reservation.
played by nature,
it

As

part

contains no

statement

MODERN DEMOCRACY.
whatever.
It does

51
is

not

mean
:

that labour

the only cause of wealth
that
it is

it

means simply

the only
let

human

cause.

And now
will

us turn again to one of Mr.
the fine house, perhaps,

Bright's illustrations

serve

our

purpose best

and

let

us

examine the train of
plainly in Mr. Bright's
4

reflections that

were
to
it.

mind with regard
'

See,
see the

he said mentally,
stonework

the pillared portico

;

and

the

brickwork of the

tall,

imposing faqade;

look at each of these features,
it?

and

let

me

ask,

who made

The answer

is

evident: stonecutter's, bricklayers, masons.

By
mark

a

little

inquiry we could jind

the

names and adlet

dresses of all of them.
the coved ceiling in the

Enter ; and

us

drawing-room, with all its That was not made fretwork and gilding. by the idle lady sitting under it. She does not
even

know what material

it is

made

of.

It

was

made by dexterous workmen who themselves, perhaps,
live in garrets.

ney-piece which is

Again, that marble chimcarved so beautifully was it
is

made by

the

young guardsman who
It is as

now

lean-

ing against it?

much as he can

do,

E

2

52

THE PSEUDO-SCIENCE OF

if he can cut a pig out of

an orange. No ; it was made by a stone-carver, who has never since
seen his

Yet again, that own handy-work. parquet floor was it made by the young dandies

who
it

to-night are going to

dance upon

it ?

No

;

was made by

carpenters,

who

in their

own

rooms have barely a strip of carpet. Consider, here is a typical then,' Mr. Bright would say,
'

abode of luxury ; and yet of
at present get
so

the only
it,

people who
not one has
it

any pleasure from

much as a

notion of the processes by which

was

constructed.

Plainly, then,
it.

those people

have had no share in producing
as

In so far

men have produced it, it is the product of labouring men of their knowledge, their skill,
and
their

muscular strength ; and
This
is

it is

the

pro-

duct of these only.

evident on the face

of things, and requires no further proof.' Mr. Bright's meaning thus far it is easy enough to
follow;

but here there

arises in

it

a very

marked ambiguity.
conclusion does

The above

reflections are
;

simple, and at least partially true

but what
?

he draw from them

The

answer to

this is two-fold.

He

or

we may

MODERN DEMOCKACY.

53

drop our allusion to him, and we may say the Democrats generally, draw two conclusions.

They draw one

as political agitators, the other
;

as serious thinkers

and between these two

we must make
tors,

a sharp distinction.
in this

As

agita-

they argue

way

'
:

The luxurious
might present malit

house being the product of labour only,

have existed just as well if

its

appropriators had never been in existence.

The
it

only difference in that case would be, that

would be enjoyed, and enjoyed justly, by And as with people whose labour made it.
house, so with all the other luxuries that are

the the

now
we

monopolised by the non-labouring classes

;

if

extinguished those classes, their luxuries would
be inherited by the labourers.
the

There would be

same

fine carriages, only with
;

workmen's

wives driving in them

the

same

fine dresses,

only with workmen's wives wearing them.
bricklayer at night would come

Every

home

to his

own

drawing-room ; and the London of the future would be a series of Belgrave Squares.' Now
this is the wild doctrine

which, in the heat of

political agitation, the

Democrats undoubtedly

54

THE PSEUDO-SCIENCE OF

do allow themselves to teach their ignorant hearers but they do so at such times only.
;

So far from being part of their reasoned system, it is in reality not compatible with it

;

and

it

is

not a doctrine that they ever mainTheir dupes and their enemies,

tain seriously.

however, so widely suppose it to be such, that it will be well, in passing, to briefly point out
its

falsehood.

Continuing, then, to use the house as our type of wealth and luxury, let us ask why it
is

a type of luxury at all? It clearly is not so because it consists of certain materials, and

because on these materials have been spent
certain skill and labour.

The same

materials,

the same
just

skill

and labour, might have gone

as well to constructing a

domed hovel

without window or chimney, and supporting on its roof a colossal marble tea-pot. But this
monstrosity would never be called a luxury nor would Mr. Bright taunt his working-men
;

because their dwellings were not like
fine house, then, is a

it.

The

type of luxury, not from

the fact of

its

having been produced by so

MODERN DEMOCRACY.

55

much

labour, but from the fact of this labour

having been used in a certain way. We have supposed, for instance, that it has an imposing
fa9ade.

That faade

is

composed of certain

materials,

which have been put together by But the labour of masons and bricklayers.
the labour of these
as a fa9ade
;

men

is

not the cause of
it

it

it

is

the cause of

only as a
facade,
So, too,
it is

brick structure of some sort.
its

As a

immediate cause
all

is

the architect.

with

the rest of the house, in so far as
architect
is

luxurious, the

the cause of

its

luxury.

It is

due

to

him that the rooms are

arranged conveniently, that they are properly

warmed, properly
tioned
in

lighted, properly propor-

a word, that they are luxurious

rooms, not unhealthy dungeons.
ever,

We must, how-

go a step farther yet. When we speak of the rooms being thus proper and convenient, we

mean
some

that they are proper and convenient for
special purpose
;

and

this

gratify the tastes
class of people
is

and

to fulfil

purpose is to the wants of the

who

are to inhabit

them

that

to say, the tastes

and wants of the wealthy.

56

THE PSEUDO-SCIENCE OF
if

Thus

the wealthy classes never gave balls or

dinner parties, there would be in our house

no great reception-rooms. If they were not pleased with fine ceilings, fine gilding, and
harmoniously coloured walls, there would be in our house none of these things either. But
it is

precisely these forms of magnificence that

Mr. Bright, and thinkers of his order, always,

when

addressing the masses, take for types of
If,

wealth in general.

therefore, they really

mean what they seem to mean if they really mean by wealth the existing luxuries and the
existing splendours of the wealthy, then labour,

from being by itself the cause of it, actually gives it none of its essential characterso far
istics.

Wealth, in

this sense, is like a

bronze

statue,
it is

whose

sole

beauty

is

due

to the

mould

cast in.

The mould

consists of the tastes
;

and the habits of the wealthy labour dees nothing but melt and pour in the metal.

Thus of wealth

in this sense, the true cause
;

must be the wealthy since if for them, it would not exist

it

did not exist
all
it
;

at

whilst

from the labourer's point of view,

can be

MODERN DEMOCEACT.

57

nothing but Dead Sea fruit, which would turn into dust the moment he laid hands on it. To

hold

it

up

to him, therefore, as a prize, which,

as a labourer, as
is

he has any right to, or which, a labourer, he could ever possibly possess,

simply to delude him for some ulterior pur-

pose.

So crude a fallacy can deceive no serious thinker and I mention it here not so much
;

to

combat

it,

as to

show the reader

that

it

does

not need to be combated.

What

the Democrats really maintain, and
it

what alone
seriously,
this.
is

is

worth while

to

examine

something very different from

Not only do they fully recognise that but for the wealthy classes, wealth, as we have just used the word, would be never
but they add, further, produced by labour that it ought never to be produced at all
; ;

and

it is

a chief point in their argument that,

were the wealthy classes extinguished, this production would cease. There would be no

more

palaces,

no more grandiose
;

staircases,

no more

suites of reception-rooms

nor would
:

there even be any

humble

imitations of these

58

THE PSEUDO-SCIENCE OF

of wealth in such forms there would certainly

be an end.

Of something
:

else,

however, there
is,

would not be an end
in

and that

of wealth

The form would change, but the amount would remain the same.
another form.

Wealth would undergo metamorphosis, but it would not undergo extinction. Thus, instead of one house, with twenty useless rooms
in
it,

and each one of them

five times too

large for comfort, there

would be a number

of smaller houses,
principles,

arranged upon different

but in their own way equally perfect. The labour that had once ministered to the
pride of a single family, would here minister
to the healthy pleasure of

many

:

what had
fifty

made one
homes

gallery splendid,

would make
same

beautiful

And

the

change

would occur with regard to food, clothes, carpets, furniture, and all other productions,
whether useful or ornamental.
be no objects
individually
is

There would
fantastic

of

or

wasteful value, as

so often the case now.

There would be no liqueurs worth fifteen shillings a bottle, no carpets worth three

MODERN DEMOCRACY.

59

worth guineas a yard, and no writing-tables But the skill and five thousand pounds.
labour which
is

now

so

wrongly concentrated

upon things
in the least

would, without being diminished, be applied in a juster
like these

way.
or

Instead of producing a few invidious
it

enervating luxuries,

would

produce

many harmless and healthy ones, which to any sound taste would be even more pleasing
than the former.

Thus the wealth of the

community, though minted as it were into smaller coins, would be still as great in the aggregate, or perhaps greater even than it
ever was.

This

is

the conclusion really

drawn by the

Democrats from their doctrine of wealth and
labour
;

and

it is

by the

light of this that

we

must judge what that doctrine means. Now, on the very surface of it, it means plainly thus much that the amount of skill and
the amount of labour expended annually in

any given community, are independent of the
uses they are put to
;

and, though these last

may

vary, the former remain constant.

This

60

THE PSEUDO-SCIENCE OF

proposition, however, can be put in a simpler

form.
are

It implies that

men who do
artificial

not labour
class
;

an unnatural and

and

that a

man

naturally,

whether

his

powers
In other
is

be large or small,

will, unless

hindered, de-

velop and use them to the utmost.

words, the doctrine of wealth and labour
really

a statement with regard
It declares that
;

to

human

nature.

labouring animal
is

that a

man is naturally a human community
;

naturally a labouring

community

and that

out of so

many men,
labour.

unless there be

some

special hindrance, there will

come naturally

so

much

That

is

to say,

we may

count on a

man

to labour, just as surely as

we may count on a man
this

to eat

;

and, although

tendency in him
explanation,
affect

may be
it is

capable of some

further
that

capable of none
speculator.
;

can
it is

the social

For
he

him

an ultimate fact
it.

and

as such

builds

upon Here at
for.

least

we

find the thing

we

are

looking

Step by step
;

we have examined
traced care-

the democratic theory

we have

MODEEX DEMOCRACY.
fully

61

backwards the logical pedigree of its and we now arrive at the one doctrines
;

from which they
of

all spring.

The conception
and
ultimate

man

as a naturally labouring animal,

of his tendency to labour as an

social fact, is the logical foundation of

every

scheme or system that now emanates from
the professed party of progress.

The

entire

doctrine of equality, the entire democratic
theory, stands or
it.

falls

with the correctness of

The

inquiry, therefore, narrows itself to
:

the single question
true or false?
actual facts of

Is the
is

above conception
relation to the

What
life ?

its

Perhaps few democratic
as
this

theorists, plainly

conception

is

in

their

minds, and
arguit

plainly as

we have
upon

seen that

all their

ments

rest

it,

have ever stated

to

themselves in the form of a definite proposition. One is almost forced to suppose this,

because there
to explain.

is

one fact which

it is

hard

else

It is

any

set

of

men

hard to explain how else could ever have admitted,

to say nothing of having reasoned from, a

62
fallacy so

THE PSEUDO-SCIENCE OP
monstrous as
this

conception in-

volves.

The Democrats, however, are not

Other speculators upon kindred subjects have touched the same and, though they have not reasoned fallacy
alone in their ignorance.
;

from

it,

To me

they have not seen or exposed it. few facts in the history of modern
a fallacy of the most imporit

science are so startling as this singular oversight.

Here

is

tant kind imaginable, standing, as

were, in
;

the middle of our busiest

modern thinkers

but

it

stands there quietly, like a hider at
whilst

hide-and-seek,
against
its

the

seekers

brush

clothes,

neighbourhood.
the

and yet never suspect its The more I consider this,

more strange does it seem to me. If ever there was a fallacy which could not remain
its

hidden, which, by

direct contradiction of

the best-known truths of science, was certainly
calculated to provoke
its

own

detection, such

a fallacy one might well have thought was There is more yet to add. In a this one.
different form,
tions,
it

and applied to different queshas not only been detected, but

MODERN DEMOCRACY.
denounced

63

and exposed already. Indeed, modern psychology is little else but one long
and crushing refutation of driven, however, from one
only to disguise
itself
it.

It

has been

field

of thought,

and re-appear in another. The he which was yesterday sent naked out
of doors

by the
this

psychologist,

is

to-day, in a

new

dress, the first truth of the social specu-

lator.

That

way

of putting the case

is

not in the least exaggerated I shall

now

pro-

ceed to show.

Let us take, then, the doctrine

we have
it

been just
its

now

considering, and look at

in
is
is

psychological aspect.

Man,
animal
;

it

declares,

naturally a labouring

unless

he

actually hindered, he will work according to his
capacities,
to,

and whatever use we put
still

his labour
;

the labour will be

forthcoming
its

just

as a river

would

still

pour down

water

independently of the kind of mills
it.

we

built

on

In other words, the amount of labour done

by a man
of,

independent his circumstances. But the circumstances of
life

is

not caused by, and

is

a man's

are an exact equivalent for his

64
motives.
cally
is

THE PSEUDO-SCIENCE OF
This doctrine, therefore, psychologi-

neither
is

more nor

less

than a statement
is

that labour

a kind of action which

proits

duced without motive.
application, but
it

Motive

may
its

direct

does not cause
is

existence.

The cause of

that

to be sought elsewhere.

It inheres in the

human
;

constitution just as
little

thirst

and hunger do

and as

as these,

has

it

any external

origin.
it

In a word, as has

been said already,
motive.

is

action uncaused

by

Now, were
would be seen
it
is

this doctrine
its

psychological treatise,

propounded in any monstrous character

in a single

moment.

But when
issues,

connected with various concrete
it

when

not as a psychological doctrine, but merely as an economic or a social
is

treated

one, then
itself.

its

fallacy seems to at once conceal

For

this fact there

must, of course, be

some explanation. I conceive it to be as The democratic theory, in the mind follows.
founded originally not upon thoughts, but images and thought is invoked afterwards, merely to analyse what
of every Democrat,
is
;

MODERN DEMOCRACY.
is

65
the
first

already contained in these.

Now

image that every Democrat starts with, consists the man who of two contrasted figures
labours, and the

man who

does not labour

;

and these he takes as types of the whole of human society. Hence there at once occurs
to

him the extremely obvious
sort,

reflection that

since plainly

nobody can live without labour of
not labour
;

some

supported
that
if

man who does by the man who does
the

is

and further,

the latter were to cease to support the

former, the former immediately would begin
to

support himself.

In the

above

simple

image, and in these simple reflections on it, is to be traced the origin of the democratic
doctrine of labour.
these
reflections

Now,
true
is,

so far as they go,

are

enough
error

;

but the
only a
his

point to be noticed
little

that they go

way.

The Democrat's
understand
this.

lies in

failing to

Consequently he
limits,

expands them beyond their proper

and

transmutes them in so doing into a grotesque and preposterous falsehood. Let us consider
for a

moment how much we can

really

draw

F

66

THE PSEUDO-SCIENCE OP
In themselves they amount to this, no one else does any work for a man,

from them.
that
if

he

is

certain, if

he

lives at all, to

do some work
he

for himself;

and

for the plain reason that

cannot live otherwise.
at once

Hence the Democrat

jumps

to the generalisation that

man

naturally, and unless artificial conditions hinder

him, will always exert his faculties as a paid
artisan does now.

He

will

go on producing,

no matter what, but something. This is what the Democrat means when he says that labour
is

the cause of wealth, and

when he

conceives

of

man

as naturally a labouring animal.
original observation warrants
It

But the

no

such conclusions.

man
sort
;

naturally will

no doubt, that always do labour of some
shows
us,
this

but the amount of

labour

is

the

It is nothing more very least conceivable. than will suffice for his own bare subsistence.

That much we can always count upon his But why ? Because there are certain doing.
wants that we can always count upon his feelin short that we can say ing. The only labour
he will do naturally,
is

the exact counterpart

MODERN DEMOCRACY.

67

of the wants of which he cannot possibly divest
himself.
this,

Whatever labour he may do beyond

he does only in virtue of certain variable circumstances and until we know them, we
;

can say nothing about the labour.
It will appear,
in a

however, from hence, that

very limited sense labour

may be spoken

of as being practically natural to man, and
his

tendency to

it

accepted as an ultimate fact

in his constitution.

that if

appear further we are to use the word thus, labour
it

But

will

emphatically

is

not the cause of wealth

;

it

is

the cause, on the contrary, of nothing but a

bare subsistence.

If the

Democrats in that

sense like to use that formula, they
it

may

find
;

convenient as a kind of mental shorthand
if their

and

hearers are duly warned that
is

it

is

such, there
a

no reason

why

it

should convey

wrong
it

idea.

In our present purpose, how-

ever,

must

would only prove confusing, and we completely free ourselves from such

ambiguous phraseology. It will be well for us to remember that, however certainly we can always count on a man for the minimum of
F 2

68

THE PSEUDO-SCIENCE OF
of,

labour spoken

yet even this really depends

on external circumstances, and could not be pro-

duced unless these were present to motive Let us suppose, for instance, a hungry man
a prison,

it.

in

where there was no food

to be ac-

quired by any means, and where he knew there was none. In that case we should have the
internal want, but

we

should certainly have
reason, that

no labour

;

and for

this

there
is

would be no motive

to labour.

A

motive

the product of two things, and the internal want is but one of them. The other is the
external means

by which
;

it

is

thought
this
last

this
ele-

want can be

satisfied

and

if

ment

is

absent, labour

is

unproducible.
is

If our
in his

starving prisoner thinks that there
cell

somewhere food hidden behind some loose

stones or brick work, he will tear his hands
to pieces in trying to dislodge

the masonry.

But

if

the structure of his walls show such a

hope

to be impossible,

he

will not, except in

madness, raise so

much

as a finger against a

surface of ponderous granite.

Labour under

such circumstances, so far from being natural

MODERN DEMOCRACY.
to him, will be both impossible
able.

69

and unthink-

Motive will be absent, and the

be a helpless log.
to

The tendency

in

man will man then
is

do a certain minimum of labour, which no doubt, an ultimate
strictly speaking,

practically,

fact in his

character,
fact at all
is

is,
;

not an ultimate
as if
it

and

to speak of

it

were

so,

merely a short way of saying not that this labour does not depend upon circumstances, but that the circumstances that produce it
everywhere. In other words, man will always labour to feed himself, because in every spot he inhabits he can procure food
exist practically

by labouring.

And now
doctrine

let

us gather

up all the foregoing
finally to the great

arguments and apply them

we

are considering

the

modern

deis

mocratic doctrine
labour.

that the cause of wealth
is

The
is

result

this

that that doctrine

which
politics

so perpetually appealed to both in

and speculation, which is paraded before the world as a new social evangel, as the first tidings of hope that have ever reached
the multitudes, and which
is

stirring the

minds

70
of

THE PSEUDO-SCIENCE OF

men

with divided hope and horror,

is,

when
com-

analysed accurately and resolved into

its

ponent propositions, a doctrine utterly at variance with every teaching of science, and the

more evidently monstrous the more thoroughly
it is is

understood.

It is

one of two things

:

it

either a direct contradiction of the actual

facts of life, or else it is a statement that has

no relation whatever to them.
falsehood,

It is either a

or

it

is

nonsense.

If labour

be

spoken of with the understanding just alluded
to,

that

man

labours naturally only in so far

he has always some motives present to him, then the doctrine is not nonsense but it is a
as

falsehood.

For labour so

qualified, as

we have
it

seen already, produces not wealth, but

pro-

duces the very antithesis of wealth, that is, only a bare subsistence. If, however, labour be

undoubtedly is spoken of by the Democrats, with the above understanding

spoken

of, as it

completely put aside and forgotten if it be spoken of as in itself an original and constant cause, and if, as such, it be said to produce
anything, then the doctrine
is

simply so

much

MODEKX DEMOCRACY.
nonsense.
first

71

a contradiction of the very truth of psychology of a truth admitted
It is

by thinkers of every school, by necessitarians and by believers in freewill equally the truth,
namely, that action is the creature of motive ; and that even if the will be as free as it has

been ever said to be,

it

between
place.

motives,

but

can simply choose never supply their

Here formally
ends,

my

destructive

criticism

but

it is

not quite ended practically.

We have gone to the root of the whole demowe have found that to consist of cratic theory
;

a

single scientific falsehood

;

and to each of

my

arguments in succession the reader may no doubt have assented. But the falsehood in
question,

when put

in its proper light,

is

at

once seen to be so crude and palpable that in many minds there is sure to arise a doubt
whether, after
all,
it
;

taught by anybody

can have really been whether the theory of
really based

modern democracy can be
it,

upon
not

and whether
tilting at

all

this

while

we have

been

a windmill.

Until this doubt

72

THE PSEUDO-SCIENCE OP
it is

has been dispelled completely

impossible

to consider that the democratic position has

been disposed

of.

I shall, therefore, ask the
fact.

reader to consider the following

Mr. Herbert Spencer,
1

logy,'

Study of Sociotouches the very question we have been
in his

'

just discussing, namely, the origin of

what the
this
'

Democrat means by wealth
by which the Times
'
'

;

and of

he

takes a very excellent example, the
Press,'
is

Walter

printed.

And

I say such a printing-press

is

a very excellent

example, because it is a machine for producing not an aristocratic luxury, but one of the

prime necessaries of the ideal democratic life a newspaper. Mr. Spencer, then, bids us
consider the origin of the

'Walter

Press.'

Most men, he
notion of
us.
'

thinks,

would have probably no
'

he therefore goes on to instruct In the first place,' he says, this automatic
it
;

printing machine
other

is

lineally descended

from
.

automatic printing

machines

.

.

each

And pre-supposing others that went before. then, on tracing the more remote antecedents, we
. .

1

The Study of Sociology, by Herbert Spencer, pp. 126-130.

MODERN DEMOCRACY.

73

find an ancestry of hand-printing presses which, through generations, had been successively im1

proved.'

This, however, says Mr. Spencer,

is

but a small part of the matter. He points out how the ' Walter Press not only implies an
'

ancestry of former presses, but

how

it

implies

the existence of the machinery used in
it,

making

and how
its

this again

has a further ancestry

of
'

Again, he reminds us that the Walter Press would have been useless until

own.

'

there

had

been invented

a paper-machine
in almost endless
there is the genesis
:

which would turn out paper
'

lengths.

Thus,' he says,

'

and he finally of the paper-machine involved adds to all this, the abundance of iron in
England, which has been the chief cause of the development of our machine-making generally. Here, however, he pauses to tell us that

we have

not finished our inquiry even yet. To produce the Walter Press there have been
'
'

moral causes
ness,'

at
'

work

too.

'

Without that readi-

he says, to sacrifice present ease to future benefit, which is implied by enterprise, there would never have arisen the machine in question.
. .

74

THE PSEUDO-SCIENCE OF
their

Without mechanical engineers, who fulfilled
contracts tolerably well by executing
rately, neither this

work accu-

machine, nor the machines

that

made

it,

could have been produced;

and

without artisans having considerable conscientiousness,
.
.

no master could insure accurate work.

.

So

that there are implied in this mechanical

achievement not only our slowly generated indus-

innumerable products and processes, but also the slowly -moulded moral and
trial state,

with

its

intellectual natures

of masters and workmen.
'

Has,' Mr. Spencer proceeds,
forgotten ?
Yes,

nothing

now

been

we have left out a whole

division

of all-important social phenomena we group as progress of knowledge.

those
.

which

.

.

Without
without a

a considerably-developed geometry
developed physics
.
.
.

.

.

.

and
.

in the absence of a

developed chemistry

.

,

such a machine could

not have come into existence. Surely,' he exclaims,
'

we have now got

to the

end of

the history.

Not

quite: there yet remains

an

essential factor.

No

one goes on year after year spending thousands

of pounds and much time, and persevering
through disappointment and anxiety, without a

MODERN DEMOCRACY.
strong motive.

lO

" The " Walter Press was not a

mere tour de
duced?

force.

Why,

then,

was

it

proicith

To meet an enormous demand
to

great promptness

print with one machine

16,000 copies per hour.' Mr. Spencer amplifies and then he informs this statement a little
;

us that his explanation

is

at last complete.

He

has put

all

the causes before us as of a

typical piece of wealth.

Now
this

I shall ask the reader to consider

account attentively, and for the following It is given us by a man who, of all reason.
is

}

perhaps most representative of living men, modern scientific thought. There are few
branches of science which he has not studied
there are few opinions with which he
familiar
;

;

is

not

in especial
:

nature and society

he has analysed human and this is his account of
the

the most prominent of sociological facts

production of material wealth. What, then, does the reader see in it ? Perhaps the first
thing that will
strike

him

is

its

extreme

amplitude and complexity, as contrasted with the crude formula that the cause of wealth is

76
labour.

THE PSEUDO-SCIENCE OF

But such a contrast

is

altogether

superficial.

Has the

reader

not detected

to him.

something more than that ? I will show it In that elaborate account of Mr.
all

Herbert Spencer's, despite

the knowledge
in
it,

and

all

the keenness

shown

there

is

implied tacitly the very same fallacy which
I

have shown to be the root of the democratic
In each of
enunciates
the
there

theory.

causes
is

that

Mr.
the

Spencer
existence

implied
labour,

not

only of

human

but

human
all this

labour of the most various kinds.

But
;

labour Mr. Spencer takes for granted and, though he tells us carefully how in each
case
to
it

has been directed,
to ask

it

never once occurs

him

how

words, in this

was generated. In other special connection, he conceives
it

of labour as action that
tive.

He

independent of modoes not distinctly say this, he does
is
;

not distinctly think it but the conception is evidently at the back of his mind, and its dim
presence
is

traceable in his whole handling of

the subject.

The reader may

ask,

however,

How

can this be?

Does not Mr. Spencer

MODERN DEMOCRACY.
specially

77
is it

mention motive

?

Indeed,

not the

very thing that he leads up to and ends with ? To this I answer that so far as the word goes, Mr. Spencer no doubt does not only mention
motive, but he parades

but the prominence he gives to the word merely shows how completely he has missed the thing. Let us see
it
;

how
all

this

is.

In the

first

place, then, out of

the countless actions which he shows have

been
Press,'

involved

Walter producing the there are one man's actions, and one
in
it

'

man's alone, which he thinks
to

necessary

refer

to

motive at

all

;

and those are

the actions of the inventor of the machine
himself.

The

actions of all the inventors that
all

had preceded him, of

the miners, the

ironfounders, the chemists, the engineers, and
so forth, are taken as matters of course that

require no explanation.
ever,
is

This omission, howIt is

a comparatively minor matter.

a hint rather than a proof of the real error

The proof of that is, not that Mr. Spencer does not dwell upon motive enough, but that what he speaks of as motive
in question.

78
is

THE PSEUDO-SCIENCE OF
not really motive at
all.

Let us consider

this point carefully.

The invention and com'

pletion,
Press,'

Mr. Spencer, of the Walter involved much persevering labour on
says

the part of a certain
this

man

the inventor, and

man

laboured in this

way

only in virtue

of his being influenced by a certain motive to

do

so.

that

Now, what does Mr. Spencer say that motive was ? It was the wish, he says,
'

to print

The Times
;

'

at the rate of 16,000

copies an hour

or, as

he puts

it

afterwards,

the wish to

supply the public

demand

for
is

such copies.

Mr. Spencer, however, here

confusing two things.

He

is

confusing the

motive of an action with the purpose of it. The purpose of an action is its objective end,
the motive of
it is

its

subjective end.

The

one

is

the cause of a man's acting in a par-

way, the other is the cause of a man's acting at all and though these two causes
ticular
;

may

occasionally coincide, yet essentially they

are always distinct, and

generally they are
in

completely different.
'

Thus

producing the

Walter

Press,' the

wish to supply the public

MODERN DEMOCRACY.
N

79
constitute

demand spoken of did no doubt
the inventor's purpose
tute his motive.
;

but

it

did not consti-

His motive was not in this

wish, but in
wish.

the reason of his having this
it is

Now,

that reason,

just conceivable,

may have been a wholly unselfish desire on The Times his part that whoever wanted
*

'

should be able to procure a copy of
his

it,

and

motive and his purpose accidentally would But none the less for in that case coincide.
that

reason

would

his

motive
;

have
it

been
pos-

distinct

from his purpose

nor could

The only sibly be expressed in terms of it. way to express it would be in terms of his

own

character

that

is

to

say,

the

intense

and loving solicitude with which the general We shall not, howpublic had inspired him.
ever,

I

think,

be

doing the

inventor

an

injustice if
state

we

refuse to credit

him with a
if

of feeling so singular, and

we

attri-

bute to him as his motive, instead, the desire
to

make money;

if

we

say that whilst his

purpose was to give something to the public, his motive was to get something out of it.

80

THE PSEUDO-SCIENCE OF
his

Anyhow, whether
whatever
it

motive was

this,

or

was,

it

was something which Mr.
:

Spencer does not even so much as hint at it was an internal tendency to action developed in him by external circumstances and it was an exact resultant of these last
;

and of

his

own
all

character.

Nor does
It

this

hold

good of the inventor
equally of

only.

holds good

those countless others, without
as

Spencer says, the 'Walter Press' would have been impossible. Without motive not one of those could have
labours,

whose

Mr.

moved

a muscle

:

they might as well have been

inmates of the palace of the Sleeping Beauty. And motive in each case in the case of every collier who handles his pickaxe, of every stoker

who

fires his

engine, of every chemist

who

lifts

his crucible

has been the exact resultant of

the man's character and of his circumstances, of the wants he
is

capable of feeling, and

of the means he finds open to
fying them.
final cause,

him of

satis-

Here, then,
not merely of

we have the one human labour, but
;

even of

human movement

and yet of

this

MODERN DEMOCRACY.
cause Mr.

81

Spencer says nothing.
it

Though
In
this

he

may know

as a psychologist, yet he has
it
it

utterly forgotten
latter character

as a sociologist.

has never even come into

his considerations.

What

is

to be said then

?

The very thing I have said already that that same democratic fallacy which, when once
exposed,
it

seemed

difficult
still

to attribute to
to conceive of
is

any

intelligent being,

more

as the basis of

an accepted system,

actually

to be found hi the reasonings of the very man who, of all others, would be the first, if he

detected

its

presence, to realise and to deSince, then, the reader

nounce

its

enormity.

sees with his

own

eyes that such a thinker

as Mr. Spencer can
find
it

be guilty of

it,

he

will

hard to bring the truth home to himself that Mr. Bright may be guilty of it
less

also

;

and that for one

man

like

Mr, Bright

who may have the vigour to teach it, there may be eager millions ready to receive and
reason from
it.

Finally, to clench the foregoing arguments,

and

to

make

the practical import

of

them

G

82

THE PSEUDO-SCIENCE OF
vivid
thing.
still,

more
one

there remains to be added
the

In place of

fundamental

fallacy of the pseudo-science of the

Democrat,

we must put

the fundamental truth that in a
it.

true social science will correspond to

The

pseudo-science starts with the conception of

man

as

an animal, containing in himself a

natural tendency to labour.

The true

science

does just the opposite.
ception of

It starts

with the con-

man

as an animal, containing in

himself no
hibiting

tendencies whatsoever,

and ex-

them only when acted on by external
Abstracted from these
cirit

circumstances.

cumstances,
It

regards him as hardly animate.

might, perhaps, allow that he would have he would be as much life as a vegetable
;

but so far as power to perform a single action goes, he would be He could neither raise an practically dead.
conscious of this
life

also

:

arm, turn his head, nor move a step backwards He would be motionless, for he or forwards.

would have no motive.

If ever

we would

arrive at a true scientific knowledge of the

human

cause of wealth and the progress of

MODERX DEMOCRACY.
material civilisation,

83

we must
must

start with the

conception of

man

as thus abstracted
strip

from his

circumstances.
attribute

creature.

him of every by which we know him as a working We must regard him as on a par

We

with a cabbage or a blade of asparagus, and as incapable as these of making the least
exertion.

Even

this

hardly symbolises

suffi-

ciently his utter

and absolute deadness.

Let

us conjure up to ourselves the face and the
figure of
gies

Napoleon let us think of the enerthat, wherever he went, he manifested
; ;

and

let

us ask

why

these energies never left

him?

It

was because, wherever he went, he

was surrounded by external circumstances. Abstract him from these, and the same breathing body becomes as helpless and inactive as

a dead cod's head in a gutter, or a wax doll in a toy-shop. Take, however, this lifeless

lump, and place

it

once more in

its

own

circle

of circumstance. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, a host of motives is generated the
;

dead thing
motion,

is

alive again.

It is

'

in

form and
action,

how

express

and admirable ! in
G
2

84

MODERN DEMOCRACY.
like
'

how

God !

an angel! in apprehension^ how like a Since, then, apart from circumstances

man
he

can have no motive, and since apart from motive he has practically no faculties, since
is

as incapable of labour as a doll or a
fish,

dead

labour in

itself is

no more the cause

of wealth

than Shakespeare's pen was the ' cause of his writing Hamlet.' The cause is
in the motives, of

which labour

is

the outward

index. resultant

Moreover, motive
of two things

itself

being

the

a

man's

internal

character and

his external circumstances
is

the cause of wealth
in these
;

finally to

be sought for
its

nor will the conditions of

produc-

tion ever

be understood

until in

some way or

other

it is

systematically connected with both
It is that

of them.

connection which I say
;

has never yet been perceived and it is that connection which the missing science will

show

us.

85

CHAPTEE

IV.

THE MISSING SUBSTITUTE.

WE

have now done with

fallacies
;

;

we

are
first

beginning our search for truth
of these truths

and the

we have

arrived at and laid
all

down

already

namely, that

labour

is

caused by and must be referred to motive, and that motive is the resultant of a man's
character and his circumstances.
position truism.
is,

This pro-

of

course,

little

more than a
it

The Democrats deny
;

only by an
it

unintentional implication
is

and when once
it

plainly stated, they

would admit

anybody. It, then, so far as it start with as proved and settled. Before, however, we can make any positive use of it,
as

much goes, we
as

we must put
rate

it

in a fuller

and

far

more accu-

form.

We

must not be content with
is

saying that motive

the cause of labour

;

we

86

THE MISSING SUBSTITUTE.
this causal relationship is of

must add that

a

kind so intimate, that each special manifestation of labour has
its

special corresponding

motive, and that every difference in the one has its corresponding difference in the other

;

so that wherever there are various manifestations of labour there

must

also, to

produce

them, be a corresponding variety of motives.

When, however,
into this form,
it

the proposition

is

put
;

at once ceases to be a truism

and

for this reason.

out of several distinct
all will

It may have any one meanings and though
;

admit that one of these meanings must
it
is

be true,
which.

impossible

offhand to decide
is

Whatever

decision
it.

made, we

shall

need proof to guide us in

First, then, let

us see what these alternative meanings are.

The cause of

their existence

is

in the

com-

posite nature of motive, and

we can under-

We
it

stand them only by carefully considering that. have said already that motive is the
resultant of circumstances and character
is
;

but

requisite

exacter.

We

make our language must reflect now that when we

now

to

THE MISSIXG SUBSTITUTE.
speak of a man's character but two sets of qualities.
clude in
it

87
not one

we mean,

We

not only in-

goodness and badness, selfishness and unselfishness, kindness and cruelty but
;

we

include in

it

also

wisdom and

folly,

quick-

ness and stupidity, and perhaps even such things as physical endurance and dexterity.

In other words, a man's character divides into
his desires

on the one hand and
;

his capacities

on the other

and between these two we must
distinction.

draw a marked
say that

We

must, ac-

cordingly, in our revised analysis of motive,
it is

the resultant not of two but of

three things

of a man's circumstances, of a

1 man's desires, and of a man's capacities. Let us take, for example, a chemist, who,

at a
1

high salary, superintends some process in
Though I have already touched on the following
it

fact in

passing,

will not be amiss to notice

it

once more here.

The

above statement, with regard to action as the result of circumst ances, contains no contradiction of the doctrine of free-will. The
reader, therefore,

who

for theological or other reasons, is pledged
it

to that doctrine, need regard

with no suspicion.

"Whether

the will be free or no, motive is equally a sine qua n&n of action. Free-will only operates in the choice of motives offered to it.
It is like a player at whist, doing its best
it.

with the hand dealt
can
it

It cannot change its cards

;

still less

play without

them.

88
a factory
;

THE MISSING SUBSTITUTE.

and

let

us analyse his motive for

doing this exact work.
evident that to do
it

In the

first

place

it is

he must have the special capacity for doing it, else he would do not it
In the second place,

but some other work.

the greater his capacity the less likely would

he be to do mere routine work for
sake
;

its

own
he

he must do

it,

therefore, because

desires to earn his salary.
it is

In the third place,

evident that were this salary not forthit

coming, the mere desire to earn

would have

no practical he does earn

effect

upon him

;

therefore the

external circumstances under which, as a fact,
it,

are absolutely necessary to

make

the desire operative, and the operation
is

of the desire
his capacities.

necessary to

make him
in

exert

Let us
factory our

now suppose

that

the same

chemist has a brother

who

is

nothing higher than a cinder-sifter, and let us analyse this brother's motive for doing
his

work
us.

also.

Just
his

the

same

facts

conevi;

front

To do

work he must
it

dently have some capacity for doing

he

THE MISSIXG SUBSTITUTE.
could not do
a lunatic.
it

89

if

he had no arms, or were

It is evident, also, that

he does
to say,
;

not do

it

for its

own

sake

that

is

from a sentimental love of cinder-sifting he does it, therefore, because he desires to earn
his wages,

and

this desire

is

only operative

through the circumstances that enable
get them.

him

to

From
for

either of these

men

take

any one of these three things
the
desire

the capacity,

money, or the circumstances under which money can be gained, and his
motive disappears and his labour becomes
impossible
:

whilst

if,

keeping
first,

all

of them,

we simply change the
motive
it

we

shall

have a

still

;

but

it

will

be a different one, and
different labour.

will

produce some

We

have not, however, put the whole of the case The labour of the chemist and the yet.
labour of the cinder-sifter are different kinds
of labour as
it
is.

Therefore, as

it

is,

there

must somewhere be a corresponding difference in their motives. The question is, where does
this

difference

lie ?

in

their

capacities,

in

their desires,

or in their circumstances? or

90
does
it lie it lie

THE MISSING SUBSTITUTE.

more or

less in all
is

of these

?

Does

in the fact that one
is

cleverer than the

other, that one

more ambitious than the
is

other, or that

one

better paid than the
in the fact that
?

other
all

?

Or does

it lie

he

is

of these things at once
This, then,
is

the point that

we now have
there

to elucidate.

When we say that wherever there
manifestations of labour,

are various

must

produce them be a corresponding variety of motives, we must explain exactly in moto
tive

what elements we are declaring variable. Let us go back to our chemist and our
whose labours may stand
as

cinder-sifter,

types

of the varieties of labour generally.
parents,

They have been born of the same

they have been brought up together, and their lives in early childhood must have been at
least

approximately
in their

similar.

The

present

difference

functions has

developed gradually. What cause of it ? Let us go through the various
suppositions that are possible.
It is possible,

been only has been the

then, that the chemist and the cinder-sifter

may

THE MISSING SUBSTITUTE.

91

have begun life both with equal capacities, and have seen equally that by developing them
they would increase the money value of their labour but the cinder-sifter may have been
;

so idle, that the trouble of self-development has

more than

counterbalanced his
;

desire

for

higher wages he is therefore fitted only for the simplest form of labour, and has to rest
content with what wages he can get for
Secondly,
it is
it.

possible that both brothers

may

have been equally industrious, and equally resolved to make their labour valuable but
;

they

may
;

not both of them have had equal

and though each has done his best Both tried yet the overt results are different. to be chemists, but only one has succeeded.
capacities

Thus the difference of motive, corresponding to the difference hi their labours, would in the
first

case be a difference in their desires, in
;

second a difference in their capacities and in both a difference in external circumthe
stances
;

for in both cases

we have presumed
differs

this fact, that the rate of

payment

with

the kind of labour.

Finally

we may suppose

92

THE MISSING SUBSTITUTE.
;

a third case

we may suppose
;

that the rate of
as

payment

is

constant.

The cinder-sifter is paid
the chemist
is

much

as the chemist

paid no
let

more than the

cinder-sifter. Both,

however,
;

us remember, are paid something

for with-

out that neither would labour at

all.

In this
still

case, then, external circumstances are

as

much

as ever an element in both motives

;

but

they cease any longer to be an element in
their difference.

The

difference lies wholly in

the two men's characters.

The chemist

is

a

chemist simply because he likes chemistry, and has had the perseverance and talent to

become a
sifter is

proficient in the science.

The

cinder-

a cinder-sifter for no other reason than
is

that he prefers or

fitted for

no higher em-

ployment, and he therefore accepts the simplest that the occasion offers him.
regard our pair of brothers as individuals, not as types, the difference in their

Now,

if

we

labour might be accounted for on any one of these three suppositions. It is evident that it

might be on either of the two first possible that it might be upon the

;

it is

also

third.

A

THE MISSIXG SUBSTITUTE.
pair of brothers, that
is,

93

may

quite possibly

have existed, of whom one, though he gained not an extra shilling by his exertions, may, from instinctive love of science, have laboriously

made
for

himself a chemist, and have been willing
\

to give his skilled labour to a manufacturer

wages no higher than those of the unskilled But we are not now dealing cinder-sifter.
with exceptional cases, and if this last case be exceptional it has nothing to do with us. The
pair of brothers for us have been types, not
individuals.
rule,

They have represented the general
it.

and emphatically not any exception to
is

The

question, therefore, if

we regard them thus

as typical,

not what might be the analysis

of their respective motives, but what, as a

matter of fact, is; and this

is

a question that can

be answered in one way only not by imagining what is possible, but by observing what is
actual
;

by a wide observation of men's
and have been.

lives

as they are

Having now shown,
tive

therefore, the alterna-

ways

in which, as the cause of various

labour, motive conceivably might vary, let us go

94

THE MISSING SUBSTITUTE.
these,
it

on to inquire in which of
state

we must
does.

say

that actually, as a general rule,

I shall

our conclusion

first,

we

will consider its

proofs afterwards.

When

it is said,

then, that

whenever there are various manifestations of
labour, there must be also a
variety of motives,

corresponding

what it
:

is

meant to say with

regard to motive is this In the first place there is a variety always in the capacities of the men motived, and in the second place there
then
is

a variety usually in their desires

also.

These two propositions, however, it is hardly worth insisting on they are involved in any view of the case, and will be denied by
;

nobody. The proposition to be proved and defended refers to the third element, that of external circumstances, and

upon

it,

and

it

alone,

does the real discussion hinge. This proposition is, that unless in the case of each different
labour,

the external

circumstances

of

the
dif-

labourers were different also, the two other
ferences
;

would be practically non-existent the would be inoperative, would be undeveloped.

difference in their desires

that in their capacities

THE MISSING SUBSTITUTE.

95

In other words, various as are men's desires

and capacities naturally, yet

if

there were no

corresponding variety in the external good things that can be gained by men if talent

and ambition commanded no larger share of these than a minimum which rewarded the
lowest idleness and stupidity,
cally
their
all

men

practi-

would be equally

and stupid, and natural differences might as well have
idle

been non-existent.

A

Columbus

in that case

would do no more than a common cabin-boy, and if we cared to glance again at the pair of
brothers

we were speaking

both of them cinder-sifters,
find either of
fact,

we might find but we should not
of,

them a chemist.
living

would be a

The world, in graveyard of mute

inglorious Miltons,

and of Cromwells who had

done nothing
Let
logical.

for their country.
this in

me

put

a

We

speak of a

way more formally man being born with
;

great natural capacities

but before

these

capacities can have any effect upon the work he does, the man himself must take the trouble

to develop them.

Xow,

to

do

this is

never an

96

THE MISSING SUBSTITUTE.
it

easy task, and

is

open to the man to perall.

form

it

thoroughly, partially, or not at

A

man's natural capacities are therefore the limit, not of how little he will be able to do,

but of

how much.

They merely prevent him
;

exceeding a certain limit
least

they do not in the
it.

prevent his falling short of

Within

limits, then, his capacities practically are just

so

much

as

he has himself chosen to make
his

them.
this

Now, upon what does
?

choice in

depends on his desire to gain some external advantages and this
matter depend
It
;

desire, in its turn,

depends for

its

force to

move

him on the
more or

fact that these advantages could

be gained by his self-development, and gained
less
;

completely in proportion to
whilst

its

completeness

without

this

self-de-

velopment they could not be gained

at

all.

Our

set of propositions will accordingly stand
:

Men's capacities are practically unequal, simply because they develop their
as follows

own

potential inequalities

;

they only develop

their potential inequalities because they desire
to place themselves in

unequal external

cir-

THE MISSING SUBSTITUTE.
cumstances
;

97
this
effect

and

this

desire has

on them only because the condition of society
is

such that the unequal circumstances are

attainable.

Thus, in the various motives that corre-

spond to various labours, all the three elements which compose a motive are variable.

That the two
as

first

are so, however,

is

a fact,

we have seen already, which in itself no one doubts we may therefore presume, without All we want to insist on is that restating it. part of the proposition, which at present we
;

about which people at present do doubt, and which still has to be proved to them and having now seen what that part
cannot presume
;

is,

we may

state the doctrine

to prove, in this
equalities,

form.

which I propose Those personal inall

which are admitted on

hands

to

be involved in the difference between the

motives of different labours, are themselves
creatures of unequal external circumstances,

and for practical purposes would have no existence without them. Inequality, therefore, in external circumstances, or

social in-

H

98
equality,

THE MISSING SUBSTITUTE.'

simply the same thing, is the ultimate cause, not indeed of the lowest form

which

is

of labour, for

we

shall
it

but of every form of
lowest.

have that in any case, which rises above the

In stating this proposition I do not conceive for a
itself

that

moment that it contains anything will commend it to our acceptcertain
others,
it

ance.

Unlike

does

not

need only to be stated for our common sense It is no at once to perceive the truth of it.

more

in

harmony with any apparent

fitness

of things than the proposition that milk boils
at a higher temperature than water, or that

bismuth melts at a lower temperature than
lead.

On

the contrary,

if it

provoke any imis
;

mediate judgment at all, it to be thought false than true
a
fact, a

far

more

likely

for there are, as

number of counter-arguments, which
seem
fatal to
it.

at a hasty glance are certain to
Its truth

can be established only by an appeal to external facts, and by comparing it with them, not with our own reflections. Hastily, by fits and starts, without any system, or per-

THE MISSIXG SUBSTITUTE.

99

ception that there can be a system, such a

comparison has often been made already but no one has ever made it as a special and
;

ever distinguished This clearly the order of facts involved in it.
separate
study,

or

has

have said already, there are endless opinions on the matter, but absolutely no knowledge why on the side of the
is

the reason

why, as

I

;

Democrats there

nothing but a false science, and on the side of the Conservatives no science
is
all.

at

By

a true
;

might be changed

method of inquiry all this and it is this method which

I venture to trust I
mitiatinsr.

may now

be the means of

H2

100

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHARACTER.

CHAPTER

V.

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHAEACTER.

WE

are here at last on the threshold of the
;

missing science

and we need not now look and subject-matter.
its

far to distinguish its scope

The general
to establish

proposition
asserts

we are invoking

aid

a permanent relationship human character to exist between two things

and

social

inequality.

Now

this inequality,
is

whatever
shall

its first

origin (that

a question

we

touch upon development not only acts upon human character, but is itself produced by this very
by-and-by), in its present
thing
it

acts upon, just as a fire
it

may be
freezing.
is

fed

the hands which

keeps from

by Our

proposition therefore primarily

a proposition
if

human (which we do)
about
truth,

character

;

and

we

state

it

as a general

and a permanent
it

and declare that we can prove

by

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHARACTER.
strict scientific

101

we must mean that human character can be made the subject of a science. We must mean that, in spite of all its
methods,
it

countless varieties,

yet presents to us certain

phenomena so uniform, that it will be possible to state them as laws of human nature, and
to reason

from them afterwards as fixed and
This in fact
is

established principles.
cisely
is

pre-

what

I

do mean.

The missing

science

a science of

human

character.

This statement, however, will never explain
itself.

To convey

to the reader a true concep-

meaning, we require a far fuller and far more minute description of it, and
tion of

my

that for

two reasons.

Compared with the
recognised as existing,
is

sciences that are

now

the

science
;

I

speak of

closely

allied

to

several
distinct

and yet at the same time it is wholly from any. It is like a bull's-eye in a
ball all

target,

which has marks of

round

it

;

which by one or two
;

balls

has been even

but which never by any grazed perhaps hit full. chance has been We have therefore,

with regard to

it,

to prove

two oppo-

102

THE SCIENCE OP HUMAN CHARACTER.
that
it

site things, first

can
first

exist,

and secondly
its

that
is

it

does not exist

that

possibility
is

not a dream, secondly that not yet a reality.

its

existence

Such being the
approaching
writers
it.

case,

our best way of

it

who

be by reference to those have already come most near to
will

These are Buckle and Mr. Herbert Spencer.
first to

Let us turn

the former.

The

science Buckle sought to establish he

called the Science of History,

and

it

was

to
it,

1

have for

its

aim, as he himself expressed

the disco very of' the principles which govern the
character

and

the
is

destiny of nations'

That

'

such a science

at least conceivably possible,

must, he argued, be plain to everyone
assents to the following propositions
'
:

who
That

when we perform an action, we perform it in consequence of some motive or motives; that those motives are the result of some antecedents ;

and

that therefore if

whole of the
their

we are acquainted with the antecedents and with all the laws of

movements, we could with unerring certainty predict the whole of their immediate

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHARACTER.
results'

103

If

we

believe thus

much, he
is

said,

we

must

see that the science
;

a possible thing

conceivably

and

if

we

will only realise

what

materials there are ready for us,
also that
it is

we

shall see

a possible thing practically.

The

materials in question
length,

and
;

one class upon which he dwells especially, and which alone, he says,

number

they but there

he discusses at great are many in kind and
is

gives the others their scientific significance.

This

the class of material supplied to us by statistics. Statistics, he points out, afford a
is

new kind of evidence
in possession of

;

and they have put us
facts.

show us something, he
else

They which we might says, have dreamt about, but could never have
to

a

new order of

hoped

prove the sameness of human conduct when under the same circumstances
;

and they thus

at

once supply us with one

general truth to begin upon. He illustrates this in a number of curious ways, which
reveal

the

sameness spoken

of, in
is

even the

smallest matters.

Thus there

a startling
of letters

regularity, every year in the

number

104

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHAEACTEE.
Marriages and
;

posted without any direction.

murders recur

in

the same

way

so does the

proportion between male and female births. But the fact he dwells on as most striking of

and which he regards as explaining and proving his point most clearly, is this same
all,

regularity
c

when found

in the case of suicide.

Among public and
there is

registered crimes,'

he writes,

'

none which seems so completely depen. .
.

dent on the individual as suicide.

It

may
anyis

therefore very naturally be thought impracticable
to

refer

it to

general principles, or

to detect

thing

like

regidarity in

an

offence

which

so

eccentric, so solitary, so
legislation^

impossible
the

to control

by

and which
to

most vigilant police
.

can do nothing
the peculiarities

diminish.
this

.

.

These being
crime,
it

of

singular

is

surely

an

astonishing fact that all the evidence
it

we

possess respecting
.

points

to

one great con-

clusion.

.

.

that suicide is merely the product

of

the general

condition of society.

.

.

.

In a

given state of society, a given number of persons
'must put

an end

to

their

own

life.

This

is the

general law ;

and

the special question as to

who

THE SCIENCE OP HUMAN CHARACTER.
shall

105

commit

the crime, depends,

of course, upon

special laics; which,
action,

however, in their larger

must obey

the larger social

law

to

which

they are all subordinate.'

applies this
to all

Buckle then formally statement not to crimes only, but
actions.

human
'

By

a similar train of
all
'

evidence he declares
to be simply

we can prove
'

of

them

he puts it, of one vast scheme of universal order ; and to be deterpart,' as
'

mined, not by

the

temper and wishes of indi-

viduals, but by large general facts over which

individuals can exercise no authority.'

Such was the
such

first

great inference, and of
observation,

was

the method
to

on

which Buckle sought
the science of history.
to notice
is

base the study of Now, the chief point

the nature of this method, and

the scientific
declares to
is

which he expressly be involved in it. The principle
principle

that no fact or event of any kind can be

understood by studying a single instance of ' its occurrence. Everything,' he writes, that
'

we

at present

know has

been ascertained
all

by

studying phenomena,

from which

casual

106

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHAEACTER.

disturbances having been removed, the law re-

mains a conspicuous

residue.

And

this

can
to

only be done by observations so numerous as

eliminate the disturbances, or else by experiments
so delicate as
these
to isolate the

phenomena.
to

One of
inductive

conditions

is

essential

all

science'

But

it is

plain,

he says, that when a
for instance,

man

performs any action

when

he marries we can neither isolate his feelings nor make the required number of observations

on them.

Hence, says Buckle, the true cause of a marriage is never to be sought for in the
'

temper and wishes

'

of the bridegroom, for
treat scientifically
;

these are things

we cannot
'

but
'

it

is

to be sought for instead in certain

large general facts

which we can.

Such

is

the outline of the argument in
is it it is

Buckle's opening chapters, and not only
full

of just and ingenious reasoning, but

a luminous exposition of the only true method
to

be followed in the inquiry spoken of. We encounter, however, one singular omission, and
that
is

in the materials to
is

which he says

this

method

to be applied.

Let us return to the passage in which he

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHARACTER.
speaks of suicide.
is

107

Seemingly, he says, there
'

no act ever performed by man which is so who completely dependent on the individual'
it.

performs
it

But that
'

is

only seeming
is
'

;

what

is

really

dependant on
:

the

general con-

dition of society

consequently the facts in

the case, which the

man

of science must

study, are not facts in the lives of individual
suicides,

but the number of such
the
relation

men

in

recurring periods, and

of this

number
Let
us

to the general conditions in question.

obvious
true

however, to the following It may be quite considerations.
attend,

indeed

we may
the

say

it

certainly

is

true

that between

particular act

and the
exist

general social conditions

there

does

the strict relation which he says there does.

But

if this

be

so,

why
is

is

it ?

The

relation

exists in virtue of a chain of events or facts,

the last link in which
of the individual.

the private character
it

Buckle himself lays

down
that
it
'

as the very foundation of his science,

when we perform an action, we perform in consequence of some motive.' Indeed, in he elaborately

the special case of suicide

108

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHARACTEE.

expands the statement.
the part of the agent

He

points

out at

length what a complex internal process on
is

involved in the com-

mission of the act, what a nice balancing of

motive,
passion.

what
This

a

conflict

of

being

the
it

thought and case, were the
stands to reason

agent's character different,

that his act would be different also.
if

Even

we were to go no sentient human being
lander in

further,
;

he must be a
conditions

no

social

could cause the suicide of a wooden Higha snuff-shop.
It
is

quite

plain,

however, that
this.

one,

one,

we can go much further than Given a bold man instead of a timid a sanguine man instead of a phlegmatic and we might see resulting from the

very same social conditions, not suicide, but a fresh start in life. Action, then, is so inseparable from the character of the agent and Buckle himself would be the first to

admit

this

that the

latter

may be

looked

on simply as the reverse side of the former.

When, therefore, human action is

it

is

maintained that every

really the effect of general

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHARACTER.
social circumstances,

109

not say only that the circumstances are the cause of the
action, but that they are the cause also of

we must

the character of which that action
resultant
larity
;

is

the

and when
is

it

is

said that the regu-

of action

simply a reflex of the

regularity of circumstances,

we must mean

that

there

is

a constant and uniform rela-

tionship between circumstances and the de-

But this is posvelopment of character. sible only on one obvious supposition, that
there
is

a uniformity in the development of

human
varies,

character itself; and that however
it

it

varies according

to

law, just as
are the

surely as

the circumstances which
variation.

cause of

its

Let us take, for instance, the case of a
of enthusiasts, inspired like one man, with a single purpose, such as taking the Bastille, we will say, or destroying the
vast

mob

Hyde Park railings. Now it is plain that no member of either of the mobs in question
could completely explain his part in it, by confessions of his own. Events any personal

110

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHARACTER.
in each case,

and circumstances are involved

which may be traced out by the historian, but which are invisible and unknown to the
actors.

ber.

A
of

But there are two points to rememmob collects and acts, Buckle tells us,
remote causes outside the
in obedience to

owing
lives

to certain
its

members, and

some general law. But in the that.

We may
first

freely

admit

place,

be the law

never so general, and the causes never so remote, the law exists, and the effect follows the
causes, only in virtue of each

mobsman
In a

a

man

of certain character.

mob

being of

twenty thousand men there are twenty thousand characters, twenty thousand sets of
motives

working

;

and the conduct of the

mob

is

the exact resultant of these.
it is

We

are

accustomed,
language.

true, to ignore this fact in

We

speak of a

mob

as

though

it

were

really a single animal.
it

We

say that

it

got excited, that did this or that.

was appeased, or that it But we speak thus for the

sake of convenience only.
that twenty thousand

What we mean

is,

men

got excited at the
thing, or that

same moment and by the same

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHARACTER.
they were
or by the
this

Ill

appeased at the same moment,

same

thing,

or that

or that in concert.

Now

they did here comes

the

grand
in
this

point

to

remember.

No two

men
same

crowd have

histories,
;

had exactly the or have exactly the same chais

racters

and the character therefore

dif-

ferent of each of our twenty thousand

mobs-

men.
ences,

In spite, however, of

all

these differ-

we

have, on the occasion

complete unanimity of action. can this be due ? It must be due to the fact
that our supposed twenty thousand characters

we speak of, To what then

have, in spite of their differences, certain points of agreement
that their
;

and

it

is

only through these
is

common

action

possible.

Let us

consider the point further.

Of
his

all

these thou-

sands of men, each has

own

separate

temperament,

his

own separate interests.
him
as a
life

passions that direct
quite

The mobsman may be
;

dormant

in private

and any two

of the

number under ordinary circumstances

might seem contrasted rather than similar characters they might indeed be so. But
;

when they

all

act together for

some common

112

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHAEACTEE.
all

purpose,

these countless differences, for a
;

given hour or two, have disappeared
cancelled out, as
it

they have

were, and

left

nothing but

the points of agreement, and the

mob virtually

has become a single organism, whose strength and weakness is as some multiple of its parts.

Here then are the exact conditions
quired for scientific observation.
in this special case,

refield
;

The

no doubt,

is

very limited

for one special

mob, however numerous

it

may be, represents but a small section of the human race at large. None the less it affords us a clear and complete example of how certain
facts of character are susceptible of scientific

observation.

It exhibits to

us the action not

of any character in particular,
character that
is

but of the

common

to thousands of

men

generally, and that alone connects their actions with some common social cause. And thus the

conditions that Buckle
'

demands are

fulfilled

:

all

casual disturbances have been eliminated,
'
'

and

law remains a conspicuous residue or at least the facts remain out of which a law
the

;

might be formulated.

THE SCIENCE OF HCMAX CHARACTEE.
This
is

113

the point, however, that Buckle

has failed to notice.

He was

so

busy in ex-

posing a falsehood, that he entirely overlooked
the truth which ought to have replaced
it.

His contention, as

we have

seen,

was that

when

dealing with biographical details, such as

a man's conscious emotions on any given occasion,

we can
eliminate

neither

'

'

nor

'

phenomena the casual disturbances and we
'

isolate the

;

therefore cannot rise to
sation.

any

scientific generali:

And

this is of course true

there can

be no science of any single character. But if there is one thing that Buckle's argument
proves, and that his whole position requires,it is

that though there can be

character in particular,
of the
I

no science of any] there can be a science

human character in general. now pass from Buckle to Mr. Herbert
still

Spencer, whose arguments
point to the

more

directly
fails

equally to

same conclusion, and who yet draw that conclusion himself.

In

the volume I have already quoted from, The

Study of Sociology just as Buckle contended there could be a science of history, so Mr.
',

I

114

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHAEACTEE.

Spencer contends that there can be a science of society and the result of its study will be, he says, to show us ' what is desirable, what is
;

practicable,

what

is Utopian,'

with regard to
extracts will
'

sociarprogress.

The following
he writes,
*

serve to explain his meaning.
perties of the units,'

That

the pro-

determine the
evidently

properties of the whole they

make up,

holds of societies, as of other things

....
common

Ig-

noring for a moment

the special traits

of races
to

and

individuals, observe the traits

members of the species at large ; and consider how these must affect their relations when associated.
They have
all

need for food.

...

To

all
. .

of
.

a physiological exercise. They are all of them liable to bodily injury.
them exertion
is

.

.

.

and

to

continual pains of positive

and
'

negative

kinds,'
(I

and so on.

It is plain then,

he argues
that

proceed with his

own

words),

from

these

individual qualities must result certain

qualities in

an assemblage of individuals

.

.

.

and

these assemblages will differ in their charac-

ters in

proportion as the component individuals

of the one differ

from

those of the other.'

Now

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHAKACTEE,
all this,

115

says Mr. Spencer,
it

'

is

almost a truism,'

something we may at with accepting. Such being the once start case, he continues, it cannot be denied that in

and he lays

down

as

'

every community there

is

a group of phenomena

growing naturally out of the phenomena prea set of properties in the sented by its members
aggregate determined by the sets of properties in
the units
;

and

thus the relation of the two sets

forms

the subject

matter of a science.' 1

Now
about at
I

hence

might seem that we were once to be led up to the very science
it

myself speaking of. It might seem that Mr. Spencer had covered the ground already. And when we consider a few of the illustrations

am

by which he supports the above
'

position,
is

we

shall hardly

be able to doubt that such
If,'

indeed the case.
street,

he writes,

'

in crossing a

a carriage coming upon him, you may safely assert that in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand he will get
a
sees

man

out of the way.
train, he

If,

being pressed

to

catch a

knows
1

that by one route

it is

a mile

to

Study of Sociology, pp. 51, 52.
I

2

116

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHAEACTER.

the station,

and by another two
1

miles,

you

may

conclude with considerable confidence that he will
take the one-mile route.'

Further, he reminds
all

us

how
'

it is

implied in

repressive legisla-

tion,

that the desire to avoid

punishment
to

will

so

act on the

average

man
*

average foreseen
tinues,
it

result.'

produce an Similarly, he conas

must be held
to

that on the average of

men

the desire

get the greatest return for
to

labour, the desire
life,

rise into

a higher rank of
result also.'
'

the desire to

gain applause, and so forth,

will each of them produce

an average

And he

finally
is

concludes by saying,
to

that to

hold all this

hold that there can be pre-

vision of social phenomena,
science.'

and

therefore social

Surely one might think nothing could be

more

clear than this.

The

science described

thus must not only, like Buckle's, point to a
science of character, but
it

can be nothing

more or
itself.

less

than the science of character

Such would be naturally our conclusion from the extracts above quoted but
;

1

Study of Sociology,

p. 38.

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHARACTER.
if

117

we

follow Mr. Spencer further

we

shall see

that

it

would be a wholly wrong
but he does
this as

one.

The

science of character

he does indeed touch

upon
it

;

knew what he was

doing.
;

though he hardly Though he touches

he does not grasp it does not recognise it.
contact with
as
it,

though he sees it he Never wholly out of
it

he

is

yet always sliding off
surface.

though

it

were an inclined
it,

Not

once does he fasten on
the question
as
;

as the real centre of
it

much

as

and he practically misses Buckle did.

quite

Let us see

how

this

is.

He

begins his
is

proof that some science of action

possible
is

by

citing

certain
;

cases

in

which action

plainly uniform

regard to one at first conceives he

and the generalisations with these which he gives as specimens,
is

offering us as frag-

ments of that science
pression, however,
us.

itself.

Of such an im-

he very quickly disabuses

The

generalisations of that science,

when

once he really brings us to them, are found to deal with facts of a wholly different order.

Of these too he gives us

certain specimens

118

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHAEACTER.

and they at once show thus much To make more definite] he clearly to us. ' the conception of a social science, let writes,
in advance,
'

me

down a few of the truths indicated. Their aim is simply to convey a clear idea of the
set
. . .

nature of sociological truths.
says Mr. Spencer,
'

Take

first]

then,

the general fact, that

along

with social aggregation there always goes some

kind of organisation.

.

.

.

The

evolution of

a

governmental structure, having some strength and permanence, is the condition under which
alone

any considerable growth of a
This
is

society

can

take place.'

his first specimen.
'

Let
the

us

now
their

pass to his second.

Along with

evolution of societies in size, there goes evolutio?t

of

co-ordinating

centres

;

which having
less
*

become permanent, presently become more or
complex.'
rise into

Here, again,

is

his

third.

Men
of

a

state

of social aggregation, only on
they

condition

that

relapse

into

relations

inequality in respect of power,
to

and are made
l

the agency of co-operate as a whole only by

a structure enforcing obedience.'
1

Study of Sociology,

p. 60.

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHAKACTEK.

119

Such then
which the
Spencer,

is

the class of generalisations to

social science, as conceived to lead us
;

is

by Mr. and they show us at

once that, whatever that science
not the science of character.
ever,

may

be,

it

is

They

do,

how-

something far more than this. They show us, though they do not show Mr.
Spencer, that very science of character which

he does not recognise, standing like a ghost by the side of the science which he does, and
displaying
its

difference all the

more

clearly

put my meaning These generalisations we have plainly. just quoted of Mr. Spencer's, all deal with the actions, not of units, but of aggregates. So

by more

its

nearness.

Let

me

likewise does his

whole

social science.

It is

a
in

set of inductions as to the actions

of

men

masses, and

it

deals with these actions solely

as related to

each other, or else to the con-

ditions

supplied
first

by external nature.
is

Now

the very

truth that Mr. Spencer in this

connection

insists

upon,

that the action of
its

men

in masses

depends for

uniformity on

the character of the individuals that compose

120

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHARACTER.

such masses.
says,

Between these two
is

factors,

he

there

a constant

relation.

This relation,

and a necessary however, he treats in
treats
it

a very singular way.

He

as a fact to
;

be recognised, not as a and having shown that

fact to
it

be explained exists, as he does

with great force and clearness, he feels free to draw his conclusions from it, without examining
tells
it

further.

In the following passage he
'

us as much, quite plainly.
','

Thus

recog'

nising

he writes,

'

these relations

between the

phenomena of individual human nature and
the

phenomena of incorporated human
to

nature,

we cannot fail
incorporated

see

that

the

phenomena of
the subject-

human
1

nature

form
is

matter of a science.'

There

the whole case.
is,

What he wants

to

make

us realise

not the

nature of the relation

between

these

two

orders of phenomena, but merely the result.
of
it

in

them.
itself to

producing regularity in the second of His whole scientific attention confines
these
last.

From incorporated human

nature he never reasons back to individual
1

Study of Sociology,

p. 59.

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHAEACTEE.

121

human nature
ations
as to

;

nor connects his generalisthe one with corresponding

generalisations as to the other.
told us that
'

Thus, having
state

men

rise into

a

of social

aggregation only on condition that they lapse

of inequality in respect of power] he adds that ' this is a primary common trait in
into relations

social aggregates, derived

from a common
he
says.

trait

in their unite.'
it

l

But

this is all
it

How

is

derived,

why

is

derived,
is,

what that

common

trait in

the units

he does not even
if the trait in

dream of inquiring.
that in the units

And

yet

the

aggregates be capable of scientific statement,

must be equally capable

also.

For every generalisation we can make about a mass there must be some corresponding generalisation

we can make about a man.

This,

how-

ever, Mr. Spencer altogether overlooks.
is

There

another instance which will

make

the case

yet clearer.

One of

the chief present obstacles,

he
is

says, to a conception of the social science,

the pre-existence

of

what he

calls

'

The

Great-Man- Theory j or the theory according to
1

Study of Sociology,

p. 60.

122

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHARACTER.
'

which

the history

of what man has accomplished

in this world is at bottom the history of the great

men who have worked

here.'

1

This,

he

says,

is

the theory of the benighted childhood of all of us but the moment science examines it, it
' ;

breaks
tell

down
he

completely

us exactly

why

it
*

and he goes on breaks down. If it
; '

'

to
be

a

fact,'

writes,

that

the great

man may
its

modify
it is

his nation in its structure

and

actions,

also

a fact

that there

must have been
constituting

those

antecedent

modifications

national

progress before he could be evolved.

Before he

can re-make his
him.
the

society, his society

must make

So

that all those changes of which he is
initiator

proximate

have

their chief cause in

the generations he
to

descended from.

If

there is

be anything like a real explanation of these
it

changes,

must

be sought in that aggregate of

conditions out of which both he
arisen.'

and

they have

Verbally, Mr. Spencer's sentence ends

there

;

but virtually

it

contains this further

concluding clause: 'It must be sought in the aggregate of conditions, and not in the
1

Sttidy of Sociology, p. 30.

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHARACTEK.

123
1

man's life.' biographical details of the great These last, he has declared a few moments
before, are
'

fit

for nothing but to tickle
to

an
a

appetite

not very remotely allied

that of

village gossip?

Now
great

here

we have
is

Buckle's

exact error repeated.
of which

Because of the events

a

man

the proximate

biography can supply us with no complete explanation, therefore, Mr. Spencer argues, it can supply us with no necessary
initiator his

part of such.
that
'

This must be sought solely in
'

aggregate

of conditions

he refers

to.

Surely

here

reasoning.

astounding mode of These two sets of causes seem to
is

an

him
1

to

be mutually exclusive
p. 35.

;

he utterly

fails

Study of Sociology,

It

may

be worth the reader's

while, as a philosophical curiosity, to examine the passage in Mr. Spencer's volume from which this extract has been made.

He

will find, if he reads the

whole of

it,

that Mr. Spencer

is

confusedly combatting two popular ideas at once. He is maintaining that it is idle to study the biographies of great men ; Jirstly, because they do not really cause the great events they

seem to cause
seem

causes behind them

they are mere puppets in the hands of other and secondly, because the events they ;

to cause are in reality not very great after all. It is interesting to note the absurdities in which he involves himself when stating this last reason ; and also its complete inconsis-

tency with the

first.

124

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHARACTER.

to see that they are in reality complementary.

He

asks us, as an instance, to consider the case
'

of Caesar.

Ccesar,'

he writes,

'

could never

have made

his

conquests

without disciplined

troops, inheriting their prestige

and

tactics

and

organisation

from

the

Romans who went

before

But he says nothing of the equally obvious fact that the troops would never have
them'

made conquests either, unless they had had a Caasar to command them. Whatever aggregates

Mr. Spencer pause, and reflect for The a moment on what he means by that.
conditions in question, he means, are distinct

Now

from

Cassar.

Cassar, before
;

he was born, no
in their

doubt, was in them
it

he was

womb,

as

being shaped and fashioned without any consciousness of his own. But as
were.

He was

soon as he saw light he became a separate

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHARACTER.
being.
ditions

125

What,

then,

done for

had the aggregate of conhim thus far? They had

simply sent him into the world a baby, with immense capacities indeed, but capacities undeveloped, and which under certain circumstances might have never been developed at

developed them so as to make him the Cassar of history ? Mr. Spencer will again
all.

What

say, the aggregate of conditions surrounding

But does Mr. Spencer not see that we have now two factors in the case the one the
him.

aggregate of conditions, and the other the
conscious Caesar himself
;

and that these acted

on Caesar in the way they did, only through those motives of which his personal life is the
record?

And
'

does he not see that
'

if

the

events of which Cassar was the
initiator

proximate

thus really the result of forces which Caesar did no more than transmit,

were

he could have transmitted these
cause these motives

last

only be-

we speak

of had been

developed and had operated according to certain laws ? Finally, does not Mr. Spencer see that though we can never discover these

126
laws

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHAEACTEE.

by observing

their

manifestation in

Csesar's character

these laws exist,

only, yet none the less do and that by studying other

characters which have played similar parts to
Caesar's,

they are at least conceivably ascer-

tainable,

ment ?

and susceptible of scientific stateSurely one might have thought that,

with Mr. Spencer's
this conclusion

own arguments

for guides,

would be obvious

to even the

meanest capacity. But what does Mr. Spencer say ? He says that we should discover no such
laws whatever, even should
blind, as
the
'

'

we read

ourselves

he puts it, over the biographies of all great rulers on record, down to Frederick the

Greedy, and Napoleon the Treacherous.' Let us for a moment hold him to his

own

examples.

It is true that

being unversed in

the language of philosophic history, I am not certain who Frederick the Greedy and Napoleon the Treacherous are
ever, that the latter
is
;

we will suppose, how-

the late French Emperor.

Now
two

Mr. Spencer compare the late French Emperor with Cassar, and merely note in these
let

lives the part

played by ambition

how it

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAX CHAEACTEE.

127

was developed, and the class of actions caused by it. Even these two lives will suggest, if
they do not prove, to him, that ambition is produced under certain uniform conditions,

and

affects action in

a certain uniform
his

way

;

whilst if he extends

observations from

these two lives to those recorded in the other

biographies which he ridicules, he will find the

foregoing suggestion transformed into a scientific

certainty.

He

will in fact

be brought

he has himself already insisted on, namely, that The desire to rise into a higher rank of life has an average effect
back
to a truth that
'

upon the average man:* only now this truth will have taken an accurate form for him. He
will

know how
;

the desire

is

caused, and what

the effects are
that there
is

and instead of merely seeing

plainly

he

will

be able to

some uniformity in them, recognise what this uniforis
'

mity

is.

In other words, he will be able to
first

change his
motely allied

statement, which

not re-

of a village gossip,' into an accurate statement becoming a scientific
to that

philosopher.

Let him do this and a new light

128
will

THE SCIENCE OP HUMAN CHARACTER.

dawn on him.

He

will

see

that

bio-

graphical details, however seemingly trifling, depend for their value on the way in which

we

look at them; and that he has hitherto

thought them fit but for village gossips, only because he has looked at them in the village
gossip's

way.
far,

Thus

however,

this

has

altogether

escaped him.

mena

has studied social phenoas though they were an intricate train of

He

clock-work.

He

has observed the
last
;

first

wheel
dis-

and he has observed the

and he has

covered that the movements of these two are

connected

;

but he has

left

out of sight the

whole intervening machinery, to whose regular action he admits that the connection which he
studies

must be due

:

that

is

to say,

he omits

the Science of Character.

The mere
it is

fact,

howpoint
that,
is its

ever, that Mr. Spencer omits

not

my
is

here.

All I want to
it,

make

evident

although he omits one long proof of
scope
is

yet his entire system

its possibility,

and that

defined

by the

outlines of the

gap

which

its

absence causes.

If there be such a

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHARACTER.
thing as a social science,
if

129
I

there be such a

thing as a science of history, there must be such

!

a thing as a science of biography also
science,

or a

in other words, of the character of
unit.
this
;

the

human

Buckle shows
i

this

;

Mr.

Spencer shows

and though they both of
it is

them show
for

it

altogether unintentionally,

immediate practical purposes the most valuable thing they do show.
I shall

now

follow Mr. Spencer's example,

and
of

illustrate the science

by a few specimens
the
first

its

generalisations.

To

of these
'If,'

Mr. Spencer himself
has said,
'

shall help us.

he

in crossing a street,

a

man
may

sees

a

carriage coming
assert that in

upon him, you

safely

nine hundred

and

ninety-nine

cases out of a thousand, he witt get out of the

way.'

Now

there at once

we have

a certain

general statement, either applied to or derived

from a number of biographical
not, however, as
it

details.

It is

stands a generalisation of

the science of character
step towards, or else

merely a a deduction from, one
;

but

it

is

;

and taken by

itself it is

wholly without

signifi-

K

130
cance.

THE SCIENCE OP HUMAN CHAEACTEE.

The
is

real

generalisation
different.

it

depends
It is that

upon

something very

every man so strongly desires to preserve his life, that when it is threatened by circumstances,

he

will

always act to preserve
truth
It is
its

it.

There

is

a genuine

belonging to the

science of character.
it is all

the better for
its

very simple, and Let us simplicity.
First, then, its
;

consider

nature carefully.
is

not the action of aggregates subject-matter its subject-matter is the action of the single
unit.
It

can instantly be connected with a corresponding truth in the aggregate but it is
;

an explanation of that connection it is not in itself a statement of it. In itself it is a statement
;

us consider its degree o of certainty and universality. In the form we have just given it, it has been made to apply
let

about the unit. Next

to every

man.

Every man,
life.

it

was said,

desires

to preserve his

That, however, can only

be roughly

true.

Some men commit
in battle,

suicide,
suffer it

some court death
for their friends
;

and some

nor can we be certain in the

case of any individual that he will not

some

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHAKACTER.

131

day do one of these things
position as
versally
at
;

himself.
is

Our pro-

it

stands, therefore,

not true uni-

and the moment we apply it, we are once aware that it expresses not a certainty
If
it

but only a very strong probability.

we
in a

would make
different

it

certain,

we must put
must
not

form.

We
life is

say that,

whenever a man's

threatened, the desire
act to preserve

to live will always
it
;

make him

man

but we must say instead that whenever a does act to preserve it, the cause of his
is

action

Now
we
are

always the desire to live. I will ask the reader to consider this
not peculiar to the truth touching on, but it is an essential
it is

point well, for

now

characteristic of all the truths of the science.

Those truths are
this one,

all

of them propositions, like

with regard to action as related to
;

and they all, like this one, can be put into two forms. They can either begin with the motive, and thence
motive in the individual
proceed to the action ; or they can begin with the action, and thence go back to the motive
That, however, in
itself is

not the important

332
point.

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN" CHAEACTER.

The important point

is

that, in the

former case, we have simply statements of sometimes strong, often exprobabilities
tremely weak and that, in the second case, we have statements of virtual certainties. In
;

other words,

study of the science of character will not enable us, except as a
the

probability, to say that
sesses

a given motive
it

;

any given man posor, supposing him to

possess
it

now, that he
It

will continue to possess

for the future.

cannot show us this of

even the motive of self-preservation. Therefore it cannot show us, except as a probability,

how any

special
If,

man

will, as

a fact,

act in the future.

however, on the other
it

hand, any

'special

action be given us,
it

can

show

us, as a certainty, that

was produced
that, if

by a
the

special motive special
is

;

and conversely

motive

is

wanting, the special

This holds action sure to be wanting also. good throughout the whole science of character.

The importance of
presently.

this

fact will

appear

Let us pass
it,

first

to another ex-

ample of

which

I shall take

from what

THE SCIENCE OP HUMAN CHAKACTEE.

133

many

very unlikely place the works of a well-known novelist. * Emotion ,'
l

will think a

says George Eliot,
absolutely refuses to

is obstinately

irrational :

it

adopt

the quantitative

view

of

human
lives

anguish,

and
a

to

admit that

thirteen

happy

are a

set-off

against twelve miserclear balance on the
all

able lives, which leaves
side of satisfaction.'

Now, of

the countless

readers

who have thought

these words true,

not one perhaps has recognised them as

a
i

hard
are
;

scientific generalisation.

Yet such they

they be true at all, the truth they embody belongs to a science of character as much as the formulae of a chemist belong
and,
if

to the science of chemistry,

and would be as
educational

much
this

in

place

in

a

scientific

handbook.
be not

Let the reader
so.

reflect

and

see if

George Eliot

asserts a fact

with respect to human emotion. That is evident but with respect to the human emotion of whom ? Not the emotion of John, or
:

Jack, or

Mary

of any particular persons, or

of any particular group of persons but the emotion of men generally. Her assertion

134
either

THE SCIENCE OP HUMAN CHAEACTEK.
refers
It

to
is,

that,

or

else

it

refers

to

nothing.
ralisation.

therefore, a scientific gene;

Let us take another example shall be from La Bruyere Love may lead
'
:

it

to

ambition, but ambition will never return

to love.'
;

That
if it

may

be true, or

it

may

not be true
if it

but

be true, in other words,
it is

be not

nonsense,

a

scientific generalisation also,

and

it

belongs also to the same science of

character.
shall

Let us take yet another
:

:

this

one

be from Shakespeare
Are

Trifles light as air
to the jealous confirmations strong. 1

The same
truth at
there
is

criticism plainly applies

to

that.

It is a general scientific truth, or it is not a
all.
2

Now, about

these statements

this point to consider.

All three,

we
;

have
1

said, are statements

of general truths

It

may be
is

perhaps worth while to notice that this law of

jealousy
2

partly referable to some other more general law relative to the influence of fear and desire upon belief.

The reader may compare with the above remarks the
:

' The most accurate investigators following words of Buckle of the human mind hitherto have been the poets, particularly

Homer and

Shakespeare.'

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN" CHARACTER.

135

but general in what way? The subject of each is affection in one form or another and
;

in
is

each
a

it

is

implied, no doubt, that affection
feeling.

common

That
that,

is

to say, each

states

by implication

given a

man

at

hazard, he will probably be susceptible of the

kind of affection spoken

of.

But, at least in

the case of the love that leads to ambition,

only of a very faint kind nor even in the two other cases does it nearly
this probability is

;

George Eliot does not say that everybody feels emotion La Bruyere
approach a certainty.
;

does not say that everybody falls in love Shakespeare does not say that everybody is
;

made

jealous.

The
lie

generality of the statethere.
state-

ments does not

As general ments they mean nothing more than

this

:

that, given the emotion, given the love,

and

given the jealousy, emotion, love, and jealousy will act in certain uniform ways.

And now
more.
It is

I

must

cite finally

one example
\

already not strange to us. All labour that rises above the lowest productive
is

1

always motived by the desire for social

)

136

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHAEACTEK.
This
is

inequality.
I

the proposition to which
;

have been slowly re-conducting the reader and I have used the others solely to throw

light

upon
I

this.

Now
prove

have made no attempt
:

as yet

to

this proposition true

it

still

confronts

us utterly unsupported.

My sole

aim hitherto

has been, before proving it to be a truth, to explain the kind of truth that I propose to

prove it to be. Firstly, it is a truth belonging to an inductive science, and it embodies, as such,
not opinions as to particulars, but knowledge as to a permanent principle and, secondly, whilst
;

knowledge cannot be applied to the present, so strictly as to enable us to predict a
this

man's future actions,

it

will enable us,

suppose

a given action predicted, to state as a certainty
that a certain cause

must produce

it.

Given

the action, the motive

it

will enable us to reason

back to

;

and given the absence of the

motive, to deny the possibility of the action. In other words, it will afford us no certainty
that a hundred years hence there will be any
skilled labour at all in the world.;

but

it

will

THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN CHARACTER.
afford us

137

a certainty that

if

there be any

skilled labour, the desire for social inequality

will

have been the motive that produced it, and that social inequalities will be existing to

make

the desire operative.

138

HUMAN CHAEACTEE AND

CHAPTEE

VI.

HUMAN CHAEACTEE AND THE
INEQUALITY.

DESIEE FOR

HAVING thus shown what
prove,
let
it.

it

is

I propose

to

us

now
First,

address ourselves to

the
it

proof of

however,

let

me make

clear to the reader
sist of, for

what the proof must conwhich he will have to look. The
is

proposition to be proved
tion of Euclid. in a
It

not like a proposi-

cannot be neatly deduced
first

brief syllogism from any foregone

principles.

We

cannot prove

it

in barbara,
is

or celarent, or bocardo.

The proposition
and
it

an

induction

a generalisation from an imfacts
;

mense number of

can be proved

only by so referring to these, that the reader shall recognise at once the reality and the force
of them.

Now

in different inductive sciences,

this reference has to

be made in different ways.

In some, the facts are altogether

new

to the

THE DESIKE FOE INEQUALITY.
public.

139

They are made known for the first time by some man of science; and they have
to be accepted at first solely

on the evidence

of his word.

Such, for instance, are

many

of

forward by Mr. Darwin. But in other cases the facts, in a loose and
the facts brought

general way,
familiar
;

are for

the

most

part

quite

and then the task of proof consists

principally in reminding the reader of things

he knows already, in leading him to consider

them accurately, and
thus,

to classify

them

;

and

not

so

much adding
is

to his existing

stock of knowledge, as forcing
into shape.

him

to put

it

This

the form of proof we shall

have to look for now.

My

first step,

then, will be to anticipate

certain objections,

which are sure

at starting
indisIt is

to bewilder the reader's mind,

and to

pose

it

for a

calm view of the question.
the
is

sure to be said that the proposition before

us attributes
of

all
;

civilisation to

meanest

human

vices

and that

it

a piece of

cynicism almost too crude to be criticised.

Does the desire

for inequality give the painter

140

HUMAN CHAKACTER AND
Does
it

his eye for colour ?

give the chemist

or the astronomer his diligence and his interest
in discovery ?

Has man no
?

finer tastes ?

Has

he no nobler aspirations
to

And is the exercise
no kindly feelhas no part been
All this will be
effect,

of skill in itself not a pleasure and a motive

him
?

?

Then

again, has he

ings

And

in civilisation,
?

played by philanthropy
said,

and more to the same

which the

reader

supply as his feelings or thoughts dictate to him.

may

Now in all
It is

this is

implied a profound truth.

a truth that

may be

expressed in

many
does

general forms, one of the most significant

being that of the well-worn text,
not
it,

'

Man

live

by bread alone

'

;

and if any cynic denies
It
is,

he must be

silly as well as cynical.
;

however, not to the point here
objection
to

it

forms no
to

the
It

proposition
is,

now

be

examined by

us.

compatible with it, we examine the matter accurately.

on the contrary, quite as we shall see at once if

First then let us consider this.

The proIt

position

in

its

scope

is

strictly limited.

THE DESIEE FOR INEQUALITY.
does
not
say that
all

141
is

human

activity
:

motived by the desire for inequality
lowest.

it

says

so only of all productive labour, except the

Of other forms of
It

activity

it

says

absolutely nothing.

does not, for instance,

say that
tf

a

man

eats

because

he

desires

inequality, or that

he goes to the play because
That, however,
is

he desires inequality.
evident, that
it

so
;

hardly requires to be noted
is

and

it

does not answer what

in the objector's

mind.
tions

The objector is thinking, not of aclike these, which affect nobody but the

agent.

He
the

is

thinking of actions that affect

society at large,

and which either
of
a

raise or
;

lower

quality
is

civilisation

and

amongst these he
nise

perfectly right to recog-

many

with, other motives than the desire

for inequality.

He

commits, however, two

mistakes with regard to them.
the nature of their importance
gerates their number.
;

He

mistakes

and he exagThe latter, indeed, he
Let

probably thinks

indefinite.
first.

me

correct

him

in that point
all

Of

actions

which

affect society generally,

142

HUMAN CHARACTER AND

there are four classes only, independent of the
desire for inequality.
tion,
scientific

These are

artistic crea-

discovery, corporal works of
1

mercy, and the propagation of religion.
list is

This

exhaustive.

Now of these
all
;

four classes of

actions, the last evidently has nothing to

do

with productive labour at
purpose, therefore,

for our present
set
it

we may

at

once

aside.

Next, with regard to corporal works of mercy,
their

aim

is

the distribution of the products
itself;
it

of labour, not production

is

the
;

decrease of want, not the increase of wealth

our present purpose we may set them All we need deal with are the two aside also.

and

for

first

artistic creation

and

scientific discovery.

Between these and productive labour there is, no doubt, a real connection. The point is, of

what kind ?
Let us begin with
1

artistic

creation.

A

To this list might be added the activity of the statesman, or the politician ; but hitherto this has been so evidently associated with a desire for inequality in rank, that it has not seemed right to include it. If there are any cases of which
be said, they may be classed together with actions motived by the philanthropic impulse.
this cannot

THE DESIRE FOR INEQUALITY.
picture, or a statue, or,

143

we may

add, a

work

of literature,

is
it is

in itself

an actual piece of
of these

wealth

;

and

a piece of wealth producible

without a desire for inequality.
things

Any

may be produced
;

for the

mere pleasure

of producing them and when they are so produced, then I fully admit we have a

genuine exception to the proposition I am It is, however, the one seeking to establish.
single exception,

and

its

importance
first

is

far less

than

it

seems to be.

In the

place works

of art, in any case, form but a very small part of the results of productive labour
:

and, in

the second place, though the artistic impulse
is

at times the only

tion,

and
is

is

motive for their producalways concerned in it, yet this, as

a fact,
rally.

by no means what happens gene-

Generally there goes along with the artistic impulse a desire for inequality, if not
in

money, yet in fame very often in both and beyond a doubt the finest art in the
world has been that produced under this added stimulus. The Greek tragedians wrote
for applause,

and public prizes

;

Shakespeare

144

HUMAN CHAEACTER AND
;

wrote in order to gain a living Scott wrote in order to build Abbotsford Eubens and
;

Turner painted both for fame and fortune. Thus, if we consider artistic creation on the
whole,

though

it

affords

theoretically
it

a
is

genuine exception to

my

proposition, yet
it.

morally rather a confirmation of

Of

scientific

discovery

we must speak
is

in a

different

way.

The motive here
Indeed, of

generally

of a far purer kind.

all classes

of

labour, with the exception of the labour of

the missionary, that involved in this
rently the least self-interested.
watcher of the skies, WJien some new planet swims into his

is

appa-

A

Jcen-

may be

well supposed to find in that

moment

a reward sufficient to account for his pains in

and most sciences would yield us similar illustrations. There is another fact
arriving at
it
;

that

Men
make

throws yet more light on the matter. of science, as a rule, neither seek nor
fortunes.

Neither the flowers of fashion

nor the

fruits of

rank are offered to them.

They

neither shine, nor aspire to shine, in the

THE DESIRE FOR INEQUALITY.
arena of
social
life
;

145

indeed,

a savant, to

many

people, seems but another

word

for a

Plain living and high thinking has been, as a rule, their real as well as their
recluse.

nominal motto
position that
is

;

and

the

career

and

the

most common amongst them seems a conclusive proof as to the motive of
their special activity.
for
its

It is
is

the love of truth

own

sake

;

it

not the desire for

inequality.

Now, granting
will

all

this to

the

full,

what

bearing on our view of producProductive labour, for many tive labour?

be

its

of
all

its

extraordinary advances, depends, as
scientific discovery.

we
Let

know, upon pure

weight and significance but, having done so, let us proceed Pure scientific discovery in to observe this.
us give that fact
;

its full

itself is

not productive labour.

It is,
it
;

on the
it

contrary, wholly unconnected with

is

not even in the region where such labour
operates.

The

truths arrived at

by

it,

as ap-

prehended by the mere seekers for truth, are
like

powerful

spirits,

secluded in a distant

L

146
star
;

HUMAN CHARACTER AND
and so
far as they affect

manufactures

or manufacturing processes, they might just as well have never been discovered at all.

Before they can be applied to these practical purposes, they have to be mastered by a new
class of

men

altogether,

who

value them not

for themselves, but solely for the uses they

can be put to. science can be
labour, they

Before, then, the truths of

connected with

productive

must pass out of the hands of those who originally discovered them and
;

they must be made over to men who, whatever may be their motives in acquiring them, have some motive evidently beyond the
Indeed, this might really be shown by a much briefer argument. In so
far as a
scientific impulse.

for

its

man of science pursues scientific truth own sake, he does not pursue it for the
it

sake of applying

to

manufactures
it

;

and

in

so far as he does not apply

to manufactures,

he

is

himself unconnected with the operations

of productive labour.

though we may grant the utmost that could be urged by any objector
Accordingly,

THE DESIRE FOR INEQUALITY.

147

though we may grant that scientific discovery is one of the chief agents in progress, and that it is yet not motived by any desire
for inequality,
its

case

is

no disproof of

my

Indeed, proposition about productive labour. if we to one or two farther may proceed
reflections, it will

be found to be morally a confirmation of it, equally with the case of art.

What
modest

I

mean

life

In spite of the characteristic of the scientific
is

this.

student, in spite of the absence in
for place or

it

of struggle

wealth

or perhaps
this
it,

more properly

I

might say because of

absence

we can
as

clearly detect

marks

in

as

on a white sheet
proportion

of paper, of a tendency
exceptional power
is felt

in

not only to use this

power, but to claim a position corresponding to it. In the first place, then, it can hardly be doubted that every scientific discoverer

when on

the traces of a great truth, feels not

only anxious that this truth should be discovered, but that he, out of
all others,
it.

should

be the person

who

discovered

This anxiety,
if

however, would be not worth mentioning
L 2

148
its

HUMAN CHARACTER AKD
object were merely
;

an inward sense of

achievement but it can be seen to be more than
that, by a very simple observation. Let a

man

of science

who

has

made some

great discovery

have

this discovery

claimed for an inferior and

later rival,

and

his indignation will afford a

singular revelation to us.

He

will feel,

and

very rightly, that he has been defrauded of an honour that was due to him

he

will

feel

;

and though he may not have thought of it until he discovers it to be withheld, the
value he has unconsciously put on revealed to us by his anger at its
see
it

will

be

loss.

We

the

same

thing,

too,

under a

slightly

different aspect, in the love that
;

men of

science

form for their own opinions in the marked acerbity with which they often repel attacks

on them

;

and

still

more

in the praise they

command from every one when
'

frankly, and

with a good grace, they acknowledge them-

man, in the pursuit of any particular truth, was really motived by
selves in error. If a

nothing but the desire that this truth should be discovered, he would care as little whether

THE DESIKE FOR INEQUALITY.

149

he were himself thought to have discovered as whether he or the link-man were it,
thought to have discovered the hansom that he was anxiously waiting for to take him

home from
an error,
house
one.
if

a party

;

and he would be

as little

disinclined to

withdraw from and acknowledge as he would be to withdraw from a
he had by chance entered the wrong
be seen that, even with the
a desire for inequality of

It will thus

scientific impulse,

some

sort

But we
though
of the

can hardly fail to associate itself. must not end here. The same thing,

in a

more modified way, may be

said

religious

pulse also.
in

and the philanthropic imOften, it cannot be doubted, and

more

cases than

we

shall ever

be able to

number, both these impulses do their work singly, and singly produce lives of continued
labour and
tion of the
sacrifice.

But such is the constitu-

human
is

character that the desire for

inequality

not far off even here.

The most
and

devoted labourers in the cause of religion have

many

of

them notoriously yielded

to

it,

all

150

HUMAN CHAEACTER AND
liable to its influence.

have been

Once

let

piety have given a man power, and it is the highest praise we can award him to say that he has not used it to raise himself. Whilst as
to philanthropy,

we can
is

all

of us bear witness,

that the warning

doing good that

we

not superfluous against may be admired for it.

I have advanced, I believe, nothing in the

above remarks
will

that,

when looked

at candidly,
;

be for a moment denied by any one and they can hardly have failed, in some degree,

remove the objections that they are aimed I conceive, however, that their work against.
to

have been very far from complete and that in the minds of those who are believers
will
;

in

human

goodness, there will
It

still

remain a
of
I

misgiving.

may be

said

that, instead

limiting the cynical proposition with
started, I have,

which

but extend

it.

on the contrary, done little else I have not only attributed all

productive labour to a motive no higher than the commonest kind of covetousness, but I

have
free

left

no form of useful action whatever
at least a similar taint.

from the same, or

THE DESIRE FOR INEQUALITY.
In a word, I have passed a censure on nature
generally,

151

human
I

which,

however

may

explain it away, common sense is insulted by. This impression, then, it yet remains for

me
so.

to remove.

It

should not be hard to do
reflect
let

Let the reader
;

again on

all

that

has just been said

him note every
;

state-

ment that most
see really

jars his feelings
all

and

let

him

what they
all

come

to.

Of no form

except productive labour is the desire for inequality said to be the only, or
of action at

even the

chief, motive.

In

all

the others

it is

simply said to be an auxiliary one. Now, the point that I am anxious to bring forward is

product of several combined motives, though its moral
this.
is

When
is

an action

the

character

sometimes

determined by
is

the
;

lowest of them, this

by no means

so always

and in the cases we are now speaking of the very reverse, as a rule, holds good. Let us
begin with that of religion, which seems the most doubtful of them. If we take men of the
highest degree of sanctity,

who have aimed
is

at

reaching that, and whose influence

due to

152

HUMAN CHAEACTEK AND
it,

their having reached
less,

in such

men, doubt-

a desire for worldly inequality would be
if

a desire that,

yielded to, would ruin their

whole character.
less

But

if

we

take

men on
them

a
in

exalted level, our judgment of

this

matter will have to be wholly
shall

different.

Of them we

have to say that the desire in question, though in some cases it may turn them into designing and even criminal hypocrites,

may

not only leave them, in others,

useful and excellent men, but

may

actually be

instrumental in

making them

such.

Men

of

this class are good or bad, sincere or hypocritical,

not according to whether or no this
possessed
it is

desire

is

by them, but according
to
their

to

whether

subservient

higher

desires, or whether their higher desires are

subservient to

it.

A

priest or a
-a

may

be a good, even
zeal

holy,

man

clergyman with the

sincerest

for the souls

that have been

committed to him, and he may yet have a
strong ambition
cardinal.

to

become a bishop or a
such an
ambition

Indeed,

may
he

afford the clearest proof of his goodness, if

THE DESIRE FOR INEQUALITY.
refuses to approach the object of
it,

153
except

through the path of duty

;

and

if

the pleasure

he anticipates from the sense of personal power would vanish unless that power was
to be used for sacred purposes.
Still,

however, I admit fully that in the
is

religious life this type of character

not the

highest,
desire

and that with the highest type the for inequality is incompatible. But this
life

holds good of the religious

only

;

or in a

very slight degree, perhaps, of the philanthropic also.

To the

life
all.

of art and science

it

has no application at
artistic
tific

A

man's power of

creation,

a man's hunger for scienit

truth,

though

may

without the desire for
necessarily be in

and operate inequality, need yet
exist

presence of

it.

no way diminished by the If the inequality desired be
;

simply a material one titular rank or riches

be one simply of in other words, if it be
if it

extraneous to the means employed to arrive
at
it

then,

accidentally,

its

effect

may be

deleterious.

But

if it

be an inequality, mainly
;

of fame

and honour

if

it

consists in the

154

HUMAN CHAEACTER AM)

man's being recognised for what he really is, and since he is greater than other men, being

acknowledged by other men to be so, then the desire for inequality need be a slur neither on
the artist nor the philosopher
its
;

nor in asserting

presence do we, in the smallest degree, derogate from the power and spontaneity of
impulses.

the artistic or scientific
indeed, do

Eather,

we

the contrary.

We

attribute to

these impulses a sign of strength, not of weakness.

If

we

take a wide survey of

men

of the

highest genius, and

exceptional cases,

we we may
if

set apart

certain
as a

lay

it

down

broad general rule that the desire for inequality in fame, even if it does not initiate
artistic creation, or

the pursuit of philosophic

truth,

is

yet developed pari passu with them.

There can be the desire for inequality in fame without the power of achieving it there can
;

be the power of achieving it also, without the but in the latter case, desire of doing so
;

almost as surely as in the former, there will be

no power exercised. To this, as I have said already, there are, no doubt, exceptions but
;

THE DESIRE FOB INEQUALITY.
that genius without ambition
self-developing, can be
is

155

not naturally

orders of cases
lain

:

first,

proved clearly by three by those in which it has

dormant, until ambition has been excited
;

by some external stimulus
in

secondly,

by those

which the love of pleasure has checked it-; and thirdly, by those (such was the case of
in

Chatterton)

which

non-recognition

has

nipped

it.

myself, to

The exceptions to this, I believe be not numerous but if any one
;

thinks

otherwise I
I

dispute the point.

am not concerned to am here insisting simply
that, not only as
is

on the broad general truth
a rule, hi
artistic

men

of the highest genius,
allied
sort,

the

or scientific impulse
for

with a

desire
this

inequality of

some

but that
or

alliance

need

have

nothing mean D

Nor is that all. I would degrading in it. have the reader realise more than that. I
would have him
realise that so far
it is,

from being

necessarily degrading,

on the contrary,
It is the just ex-

normally right and healthy.
pectation of
all

great artists and philosophers

that they shall receive that honour which only

156

HUMAN CHAEACTER AND

ignorance can refuse, and which only envy can grudge them and if the desire for this
;

due inequality
ridiculous,
it

is

in such

men

ever

mean and
it,

is

not because they possess

but because they pretend that they do not. If all this be taken into consideration, the
out with anticipating will lose at once the greater part of their force.
objections
set

which I

Even

yet,

however, I do not conceive that the

objector will have been completely silenced.

He

will say, perhaps, that I

have slipped away
;

from the original question altogether that I have been talking latterly but of inequality
in personal

fame

;

and that

this

is

a thing

wholly different from what is usually meant by social inequality. If he says this, I shall admit him to be entirely right but I shall
;

ask him to again attend to a fact I have
already noticed, namely, that artistic creation
is

but a small part, and

scientific

discovery no

part, of

what

is

usually meant
this I shall

by productive

labour.

And from
inequality,

now proceed to
by the
artist

a very important consideration.

The

we

say, desired

THE DESIEE FOR

I>*EQUALITY.

157

and the man of
fame
is
;

science, is

an inequality in

that desired

by the productive labourer

an inequality in riches.

Now

apart from

the intrinsic difference apparent in these two,
there
is

this accidental
it

difference also
is

that

the former, as
stance with the

were,

of the same subit
;

work

that leads to

the

latter is quite distinct.

The fame of a

scientific

discoverer
discoveries

is
;

bound up with his but a cotton-spinner's London
essentially

house

not by any means bound up with his cotton-spinning. The reason of this is
is

obvious.
spinner's
interest

The

desired results of the cotton-

labour

are

in

themselves of
;

no

beyond

their

homely use

and what-

ever ability may' have gone to produce them,

they bear in themselves no distinguishable record of it ; they are not given away, so they excite no feelings of gratitude and they thus
;

throw no personal
their manufacturer.

lustre

on the character of
exhibit

They

him

to the

world neither as a great man, nor as a benevolent man. And of all other manufactured
articles

the same

holds good, though not

158

HUMAN CHAEACTER AND

Thus always in exactly the same degree. a fine cabinet, a china vase, or a piece of
tapestry,

suggests

certain

qualities

in

its

producer, which a piece of cotton does not.
These, however, are not by any means great

enough

to

make
;

their
it

recognition

a very

dazzling prize

and

will

be found further

that in exact proportion as a manufactured
article
less
is

useful and of
less is
its

wide

and

producer, in
it.

consumption, a personal

sense,

suggested by

Hence the motive
to produce,

necessary to cause

him

becomes
from the

more and more
product.

entirely dissociated

From
following
inequality

these

facts

we may
'

rise

to

the

general

principle

:

The kind
is

of

by which any labour

motived

varies according to the kind of benefit

which

that labour confers upon society
thus.

;

and it varies
is

The more wide and more popular the benefit, the more material is the kind
;

of

inequality aimed at

material
less

is

and the higher and less the kind of inequality aimed at, the
less

wide and

popular

is

the

benefit.

THE DESIRE FOB INEQUALITY.

159

Thus the higher motive produces
but
it

discoveries,
;

does not produce inventions it may lead to the understanding of economic laws,

but

it

will

never lead to the establishment
;

of any special trade or manufacture

it

may
for
it

produce a great architect, but
produce a builder.
the

it

will never

The man who longs

truth unravels the laws of electricity, but
is

man who

longs for a fortune
it.

who

lights

Charing-Cross Station with

And now we may have done
aspect of the
sition

with this

by

this

Our main propoquestion. tune has been reduced to its
;

true proportions

it

has been stripped of

all

those fancied implications which might have raised distrust in the sensitive and it
;

stands before us in such a condition that the

question of

its

truth

may be

entertained

dispassionately.

160

THE HUMAN CHARACTER AND

CHAPTER

VII.

THE HUMAN CHARACTER AND THE DESIRE FOR WEALTH.
FIRST, then, I shall suggest to the reader an

exceedingly simple question. Wealth exists in the world, and it has been produced by

men produced it ? The answer seems obvious men have produced it because men have wished to possess men somehow.

Why

have

it

:

and

that, in true.

must be

some sense or other, certainly But in giving that answer,

what would most people mean by it ? Would they mean that all men have wished to possess
wealth
that
it is

a natural wish in fact, and

be taken for granted in every one ? Or would they mean that it is an exceptional wish,

may

and only acquired under certain special circumstances ? To most people it will seem absurd to ask. Of course they will
not natural at
all,

THE DESIRE FOR WEALTH.
say, all

161

men wish
is

for wealth,

though unfortuSuch, as

nately only a few can get

it.

we

know,
matter.

the

loose view current about the

I shall therefore ask the reader to

consider the following imaginary case.

Let

him imagine

a race of unwarlike

savages, living on an enchanted island,

where

loaves and roast
trees,

mutton grew upon all the and where the climate was so delightful

that there
ing.

was need neither

for roof nor cloth-

ideal

Here one might think would be the cradle of wealth. Those necessaries
in countries at

which

present
all his

civilised

the

labourer has to expend

powers in securing, the people here possess without any labour at all. They start, as it were, with their wages
a free
gift to
if

them.

Their entire time
all, it
it

is

their

own

;

they labour at

will not be to
;

sustain

life,

but to embellish

and whatever

the results of any man's labour
is

may

be, there

no reason why he should not enjoy the whole of them. Ex hypothesi no one can be in

want

;

ex

hypothesi also,

anybody might be
fulfil

in luxury.

Would

not such conditions

M

162
the very

THE HUMAN CHARACTER AND

dream of the Democrat ?

Would
it

not

wealth, there, exist and be divided as

One might think so what would be the case really
to

be ?

at first
?

ought but
;

Supposing
other men,

our islanders to be

men

like all

under such conditions wealth would be utterly
unproducible.
tually
is

Conditions very
;

similar acit

do

exist

and under these

actually

unproducible.

As

to this,

with the utmost confidence.
reason of
it ?

we can speak What is the
have said that

The reason

is

plain.
;

We

our islanders are savages that is, they possess, to start with, none of the wants and therefore

none of the motives that are caused by the sight or by the enjoyment of manufactured
products of
civilisation.

They

are motived

by those wants only which are inseparable from all animal life the want to eat, and the
Thus reproduce their species. though they can satisfy both these with next to no labour, and though they are free in conwant
to

sequence to employ a life-long leisure as it pleases them there is one way in which they

THE DESIRE FOR WEALTH.
are never pleased to employ
the production of luxuries.
is
it,

163
is

and that

in

Productive labour

impossible to
it

capable of

They are no more than they would be if they had
them. Their island
all
is

neither hands nor muscles.
rich,

we will

suppose, in coal and in

metals,

but they sink no shafts, build no furnaces, And why ? They know smelt no iron.
nothing of what the use of coal and iron could do for them. They have never seen
wealth, therefore they are unable to desire

wealth

;

in
;

the absence of desire there

is

no motive
there
is

and

in

the absence of motive

no

action, just as surely as in the

absence of

fire

not a child's

work will be done

by the most gigantic steam-engine.

A man
who who

who
has

always sure of sufficient to eat, has no need either for shelter or clothing,
is

neither

seen nor heard of wealth, nor
attractions
it

dreamed of the
to

might hold out

him

;

such a

man will be incapable of doing

anything either to enrich or raise himself; and so will a nation of such men.
Let us suppose, however, that a stranger

M

2

164
arrives
tastes

THE HUMAN CHARACTER AND
at

our island

a

man
;

with

the

and habits of

civilisation

and that he

contrives to possess himself,
other, of all the loaves

by some means or
all

and of

the legs of

mutton.

Let us suppose, further, that he withdraws them for a single day, that he

makes the people

feel

the pangs of hunger,

and that he declares he will starve them unless
they obey his orders.
is

In a single day energy
not,
is.

created.

The thing that was

Now,

we have

arms, and hands, and intelligence, endowed on a sudden with power and activity,

be informed and guided by the intelligence of him who can give or withhold food. Now the nerveless, indolent,

and ready

at once to

vacant

savages become

strong, industrious
stir in

men, and thought begins to
sleeping civilisation
life.

them.

A

is

being called forth into

Our

islanders
different

and made

have been transfigured, beings, by this one agency

the agency of want, with the prospect of

having their want satisfied. Now here we have something that, though
in its literal sense a fairy-tale,
is

yet symboli-

THE DESIRE FOR WEALTH.
cally

165

an accurate piece of history. It is true there are no islands where the trees bear loaves

and roast mutton

;

but there are islands in

which there grows the sago-palm, and where
a

man by an

hour's labour could secure food

for a twelvemonth.

There are other places

in which, for other reasons, the

means of subeasily.

sistence are obtained even
in

more

But

none of these places, except under foreign pressure, do the natives produce wealth.
however, only amongst tropical or sub-tropical savages that we can find parallels to our imaginary islanders. We can find them
It is not,

in Europe, in the very middle of civilisation.

Not

to

go farther
but

afield,

we can

find

one in the
it

Irish peasantry.
is

The

Irish

have to labour

true

;

why ?

Because without labour

they would perish with cold and hunger. The labour they do, however, is only just sufficient
to raise

them

to that level

on which without

labour our islanders are placed naturally. It is the lowest level compatible with animal
comfort.

The

Irish rise to

that,
;

develop some

skill in

the process

and they but in spite

166
of their
rise.

THE HUMAN CHARACTER AND
skill,

beyond that

level they cannot

Necessity
;

may be

the mother of inven-

tion

but

it is

the mother only of the inven-

tion of necessaries.

With the attainment of
skill

the necessaries, their
ceases.

and their invention

They can invent no more, because they want no more. They have no desire for a clean cottage with four or five rooms in it
;

smoky They have no desire for a house to put the pig in they had far
they prefer a
hut.
;

sooner that

it

kept the family company.
thrust

Not

only have they no desire for such improve-

ment

;

they resent

it if it is

upon them.

Give them a clean cottage, they will instantly make it dirty. Put the pig in the pig-house,
they will instantly have it back in the kitchen. What they want is not riches it is simply a
;

leisurely poverty.
Irish,

I have said

this

of the

but

it is

not true only of them.

They
is

are simply a familiar type of the average of

mankind

in general

wherever wealth

net

directly before them, either in itself or in the

means that lead
kind, all the

to

it.

The average of manare, in that case,

world over,

THE DESIRE FOR WEALTH.
exactly in
the

167

condition

of

our islanders.

Wealth not being before them, they are unable
to desire I
it is
it.

know

this is

a hard saying.

supposed that the desire for wealth
the

Popularly is of
;

all desires

commonest and most natural

and any assertion that contradicts this, is sure to be met at first with a smile of incredulity. It is necessary, therefore, that we examine
the matter carefully.
First let

me

observe,

then, that the popular supposition spoken of,
like

most popular suppositions, contains a certain truth in it and that is exactly the
:

reason

why

it

is

so misleading.

We

will

begin by considering what this truth is. We need not go far to discover many recognised
expressions
will

of

it.

One

of them, however,

be quite

sufficient

the homely, prowill
is

verbial saying, that

money

do anything.

Now
in

in this saying there
It is a loose

fault with.

way

nothing to find of stating what
It

a general

way

is

true.

means

that,

except under certain special circumstances, money or its equivalent will, if the amount be

168

THE HUMAN CHARACTER AND

large enough, always secure from any

man

certain immediate services.
is
is

But

to

say this

not in

itself to

say that the desire for wealth
to all

naturally

common
is

men.

The

latter

proposition
first,

and

it is

simply an inference from the an inference of the falsest and

most

illogical kind.

What
to all

the

first

proposi-

tion really

says

is,

not that the desire for

wealth

is

common

men

naturally
it

;

but

that under one given condition

will always

naturally develop itself; and that given condition
is

the sight of wealth.

It is

the very

condition I have just

now been

insisting on.

Let us take an illustration not from money, but from something strictly analogous to it.

There are certain savages who have lived for ages ignorant of alcoholic liquors, but who
once having tasted whisky will do anything in order to earn some more of it. Now

amongst such men
fect

might be said with pertruth, not indeed that money, but that
it

whisky will do anything.

That does not mean,
desire

however, that
turally
:

they

all

whisky nadesire
it,

it

means only that they

THE DESIRE FOR WEALTH.

169
it.

when once they have been made

to taste

And
desire
in
its

the same

is

the

case with

wealth, as

civilised nations use the
is

word

;

only here the
it

more hard

to develop, and

varies
its

intensity

with the conditions of

development.

have already cited the cases of the Irish Let us now turn to England and peasantry.
I

to the heart of our manufacturing districts.

There we

shall find colliers

who, when times
to

are good, earn

more from week
clergymen
1
;

week than
amongst whose

many

beneficed

and

factory hands

we

shall find families
still.

earnings are larger
fact,

Now

what, as a
?

do these people do with their money Some save, and invest it in various ways
very often, I

am

informed, in house property.

But those are a small minority.
rest,
is,

As

for the

however, the singular thing about them not that they do not save their money, but
I

1

was
in

told, for instance,

by one of the

largest cotton-

the kingdom, that amongst his employes were spinners many families the united wages of each of which amounted to
3001. a year.
I learnt

from the same source many
spent.

facts as to

how such incomes were

170

THE HUMAN CHARACTER AND
it.

the manner in which they spend

Not only

do they spend

on nothing that can be of any permanent comfort to them, but they spend it on things that, in proportion to the price paid,
it

can yield them at the moment the smallest amount of pleasure. Thus they will spend on
grapes more than they do on house-rent they will buy a piano without knowing a note of
;

music
dogs
;

;

they will give beef-steak to their bull-

and they have been known to smoke pipes with four bowls to them, so as to con-

sume

in
1

a given time as

much

tobacco as

possible.

And

yet

all this

while they will be

living in squalid cottages, with hardly a per-

manent comfort, and with not one refinement
they can value in them. Now though these men very likely, if taken to some rich man's
house, might look with a vague envy at his

rooms, his pictures, and his furniture,

it

is

plain that they really have no desire for such

things

;

for if they had, they
similar.

might themselves
;

have something
1

Again

though

if

any
New-

castle.

Pipes of this kind were some years ago made at I do not know if the manufacture is continued.

THE DESIRE FOR WEALTH.

171

one of them were offered a thousand pounds, it is needless to say that he would take the

money with

avidity,

it

is

plain that,

it

not

being offered him, he has no distinct desire for If he had, in five years he might save it. it.

Here, then,

we have three

classes of

men

peasants, colliers, and factory hands, all living

with wealth on every side of them the first class plainly does not desire

;

and yet
it

at all

;

and the two

latter desire it so little that
it,

what

they do receive of away from them.

they

virtually

throw

But

what, then, of

those

fierce

class

hatreds, of

which we hear so much and
?

see so
said,

many

signs

These are

all, it
;

may

be

based on desire for wealth
of the present volume, I
points to them.

and the whole
reminded,

may be

To

this objection

must be

given a two-fold answer.

Firstly, I

am

not

now
is

contending that the desire for wealth not widely producible / but merely that it
Secondly, I must point to a fact

cannot exist without certain conditions to pro-

duce

it.^

we

have not yet touched upon, that the desire for

172
wealth
is

THE HUMAN CHAEACTEE AND
a very ambiguous thing, and
it
is

by no

means always exactly what

seems to be.
with a half-

A

sickly mother,

we

will say,

starved family, sees a series of drags, piled

with luncheon-baskets, passing her cottage Now the door, on their way to Ascot races.
class hatred
sides, is

spoken

of, it is

admitted on
is

all

always fiercest

when want

confront-

ing luxury.

The mother, well suppose, is moved to
wishes what
?

therefore,
bitterness

we may
by the

sight of the wealth before her,

and wishes

Not

that she herself were driv-

ing a four-in-hand, or gossiping with the fine
ladies she has just seen, or

the fine gentlemen
or

;

making love with nor do visions of cham-

lobster-salad, or ortolans stuffed pagne, with truffles, make her mouth water. She

knows nothing of

these things
;

enter her imagination

they do not whilst as for the ser;

vants, the ladies' dresses, the horses, and the

glancing harness
so

all that, in its details, is

but

much sound and
It
affects

fury to her

;

it

signifies

nothing.

her only as forming, in

the aggregate, a vague symbol of profusion,

THE DESIRE FOR WEALTH.
while she herself
to her
is

173

destitute

:

and profusion

means

little

and clothing.

but a sufficiency of food In other words, wealth at the
it

moment
such
is

she most desires

means a way out

of privation, not a

way

into luxury.

And
and

the case with

women

of her class

generally.

Once

relieve their necessities,

give

competence, and the desire of wealth will be found to subside
It will

them a modest

instantly.
it is

become

as imperceptible as
it is

in the Irish peasant, or as unreal as

in the collier or the factory hand.

Since then, even in an age like ours,

when

wealth of some kind

is

never far from anyone,

and

is

flashing

its

attractions

on

all

eyes

openly, there are

still
it,

large classes
to

who have
means no

no true desire

for

and

whom

it

more than a
necessary,
it

certainty or a surfeit of
will

what

is

to realise this

be surely easy for the reader that in those earlier states of
progress
started,

society

from which

men

must have been wholly unable to produce that which, even now, such numbers of them
are, in their hearts, indiiferent to.

In other

174

THE HUMAN CHARACTER AND
imaginary
islanders
is

words/ our
^*

form

an

accurate type, so far as wealth

concerned,

not only of what

men were

before wealth was

produced, but of what they would be again, if all wealth were destroyed^ Accordingly, if we would understand the cause of civilised production,

we must

begin by referring to that

primary state of society, and consider the steps which have led from that to our own.

What,

then, let us ask,
first

was the
If

origin of

wealth in the

place

?

no one could
it

produce it until he had who can have been the

first
first

seen

produced,
?

producer

The
have

answer

is

to

be found

in a fact that I

hitherto purposely omitted, namely, that

man
were

was

a

warlike
one.

animal

before

he was an

industrial

The
;

first

inequalities
first

military inequalities

beginnings of wealth were probably plundered necessaries.
to this matter
;

and the

As

it is

impossible to speak in

detail

for every civilisation that has

had

a

beginning in history, has owed its beginning to a civilisation that went before it but
;

detail here is of .very little importance.

It is

THE DESIRE FOR WEALTH.

175

enough

for us that

at the earliest historical

period, wealth

was being produced already, and produced under certain conditions and that whenever a barbarous nation has since
;

become

civilised,

the same conditions, or their

equivalents,
selves.

have invariably repeated themcivilisations,
it is
;

The ancient

true,

were

all

of them based on slavery
all

and our

modern
wages
;

civilisations are

of

them based on
point

but

in

the

following

both

systems are identical.

They are both based

on labour which

not only motived by the want of food, for all labour is motived by
is

that primarily, but they are based on labour

which

motived by the want of food in such a way, and under such conditions, that it does more than satisfy the wants by which it is
is

motived.

This

is

true, without exception, of

every society that has hitherto risen from barbarism and it is borne witness to by every
;

monument
Babylon

of

its

progress, from the walls of

newest street in Chicago. In other words, whenever wealth has been produced, an essential factor in its production
to the

176

THE HUMAN CHARACTER AND

has been the labour of

men who,

for its
it.

own
The

sake, have had no wish to produce

Egyptian bricklayers cared nothing about the In their eyes they were merely pyramids.
bye-products incidental to their securing the The point for us to inquire, then, flesh-pots.
is,

how

we

has such labour been produced ? And can answer that at once by referring to

our imagined islanders. The added power has been produced in every case by an operation precisely similar to that

performed by the

by the creation, in the first place, of an artificial want of food, and by then
stranger

supplying the want on certain given conditions. But who is the stranger ? What force does

he symbolise

?

What

is

his counterpart in
?

the actual history of civilisation
ises three things

symbolone in the ancient world,

He

one in the modern, and a third in both.

In

the ancient world he symbolises the power of

conquest

;

in the

modern world he symbolises
;

the power of society in both he symbolises the power and the desires of a minority.

Wherever

in

any society he production of

THE DESIRE FOR WEALTH.
wealth

177

has begun, there has always been present either overt physical force, which has

made some men

slaves,

or

certain

social

arrangements which have made some men and there has always been a free labourers
;

minority which has either possessed the

force,

or which, owing to circumstances, has profited

by the what

social arrangements.

Let us
it all

now sum up
comes
to.

this evidence,

and

see

The

result

is

startling,
It

but none the

less is it

incontrovertible.

amounts to

this

that every civilisation that

has ever existed in the world has been befrun C the will of the majority of the human against
beings

concerned in

it

;

and when modern
and declare

Democrats look back
t^iat

at the past,
is

the history of

it

one long history of

oppression, they are simply bearing witness to

the

truth of this fact.

They are admitting

that civilisation in every case has been

by was

a minority
solely its

begun and a minority whose motive own advancement.
it

Now, although

may

involve a certain

emotional inconsistency, most Democrats will

N

178

THE HUMAN CHARACTER AND

probably recognise this. So far as the past is concerned, and so far as the beginnings of
civilisation are concerned,

they will allow to a

dominant minority the useful part just claimed But in the course of progress they for it.
will say that all this has

changed
is

;

and that

the key to the present situation

to be found,

not in man's rise from savagery to the beginnings of civilisation, but in his rise from the
beginnings of civilisation to
its latest

and most
say, or

advanced development.

They

will

more properly, they

will imply, that

during
;

that process his entire character has

that the desires at first
difficulty,

implanted
root

in
;

changed him with

have now taken

and

that,

having so long been schooled to produce wealth for others, he is now in a condition to
desire

and to produce

it

for himself.

The

ascendancy of a minority, under whatever for him. shape, is no longer needful

To

this I

answer as follows.
as

Between the

average

man

he was,

at the beginning of
as

civilisation,

and the average man

he

is,

THE DESIRE FOB WEALTH.

179
is

amongst doubt a

civilised nations

now, there

no

profound circumstances, but
in
this

difference,

not only in

in

character.
is
it

But the

difference

last

not what, in the
is

supposed to be. The character inherently is altogether the same. Its difference depends solely on the
democratic argument,
difference in the circumstances that develop
(

it.

Just as one form of inequality caused production to

begin,

so other forms of inequality
;

have caused production to continue and if production in these days is greater than it was

under the Pharaohs, that
depends
less

is

no sign that
but
it

it

upon

inequalities ;

is

a

result of inequalities being

more elaborately

organised.

be proved, however, or indeed stated fully, by a direct reference to
This can only
the history of industrial progress, and a careful consideration, not of its facts in detail,

but

of the different classes into which those facts

divide themselves, and the

sameness of the

principles that underlie their differences.

Now

N

2

180

THE HUMAN CHARACTER AND

the classes of facts in question are evidently

two

in

number.

The one

consists of enter;

prises, discoveries,

and inventions

the other

of the social conditions under which these have

been made or

utilised.

Thus

modern Europe with ancient

we compare Egypt, we may
if

say that the former differed from the latter, partly in the possession of steam-power, partly
in the possession
classes of questions

of

free
shall

labour;

and the

we

have to deal with
:

may

be well typified by the following

What
in

were the operations of character involved
the introduction of steam-power
?

And how,

with regard to labour, does the operation of character differ in a Birmingham workman

and

in a slave

of Sesostris

?

Between these

two subjects of inquiry, this distinction, as I and yet, so far as I am aware, say, is evident
;

no

democratic

theorist

has ever yet been

at the trouble to distinguish

them

;

nor have

they even been classified under any accepted names. I propose, therefore, for convenience'
sake, to call the former Impersonal Progress,

and the

latter Personal Progress, seeing that

THE DESIRE FOR WEALTH.
the
special

181

mark of

the former consists in

things done, and that of the latter in the condition of persons doing things
;

and I

shall

proceed in the following chapters to examine
the two separately.

182

INEQUALITY AND MATERIAL PROGRESS.

CHAPTER

vnr.

INEQUALITY AND MATERIAL PROGRESS.

COMPARING, then,
with
its earliest, its

civilisation as

it

is

now,
under

rudest, or

its

most

partial

developments

comparing

civilisation

Queen Victoria with
let

civilisation under Sesostris,

or Belshazzar, or Charlemagne, or William the

Conqueror,

us note some

of the chief
are

impersonal facts in the present, which

supposed to make it, materially, so great an advance on the past. And let us be careful to
take facts only which are of the widest popular import,

and which the extremest Democrat

regards as triumphs of progress, no less than The do his most conservative adversaries.
principal of these
it is

easy to lay our hands

upon.

They

are gunpowder, cheap printing,

steam-power applied in three ways to land travelling, to sea travelling, and to the direct

INEQUALITY A3D MATERIAL PROGRESS.

183

operations of industry, illumination by gas, electric telegraphs, and the network of com-

merce
This

which

now

connects

all

countries.
it is

list is

of course not exhaustive, but

enough

to

show the reader the order of

facts

referred to, and also their essential connection

with the ideals of modern democracy.
instance, nothing has

For

done more to distribute
;

nothing has done power than gunpowder more to distribute knowledge than printing
;

nothing has done more to multiply comforts than steam-power and whatever sense has
;

been developed of the solidarity of mankind generally, is due to the extension of commerce

and the increased
addition to which,

facility of
all

locomotion.

In

that speculative science

which has been

so largely

instrumental in

making to them

these facts possible, owes itself as
as they

much

owe

to

it.

Now by what
facts

means,

let

us ask, have these

They have been accomplished by human means somehow What we want to that, of course, they have.
;

been accomplished?

know

is

by what means, and how?

And

in

184

INEQUALITY AND MATEEIAL PEOGEESP.

asking this question,
the means, but

we

are not asking for

all

we

are asking only for
;

the
to

most

distinctive

means

just as if I

want

know how
it

a message has been brought

me

I shall be satisfied if I

know
it

that a

groom has
and

brought

on horseback, or that a commisbrought
in

sionaire has

a

hansom

;

I shall not care to inquire

who bred

or shod

the horse, or

who

built the

hansom, or

what

induced either groom or commissionaire to

embrace
If,

their respective callings.

then,
its

we consider any one of the facts
of

in

question,

existence will be at once associated

some particular man, or the names of several such. Thus the name of
with the

name
will

Columbus

be associated with the discovery of America, that of Friar Bacon with the discovery of gunpowder, those of Watt, Stephenson, and others with the discovery and introduction of steam-power
pression
:

and the popular im-

we

shall find to be, that these great

events have been caused

by the men whose
In other

names are associated with them.
words,

we

shall find the

popular impression to

INEQUALITY AM) MATERIAL PBOGEESS.

185

be that the impersonal progress of industrial civilisation has been due to the genius of
certain gifted individuals. I propose first to

show
is

that thus far the

popular impression
that, I shall

right.

Having done

proceed

to the further inquiry, as to

what were the

motives by which these individuals have been
actuated.

perhaps be asked by some, if the impression I speak of be the popular one, what need is there that I should waste time in
It

may

insisting

answer will be found by referring to certain passages which I have already quoted from Mr. Herbert Spencer.
it ?

on

An

be recollected that he, in the strongest manner possible, has declared this impression
It will

to be an altogether erroneous one.

It is fatal,

he says, to any true understanding of progress, and scientific thought is steadily undermining
it.

It is this

impression which,
'

when put

in

a distinct form, he has denounced so unsparingly as

and his treatgreat-man theory ment of which I have already had occasion to
the
;

'

criticise.

If Mr. Spencer's

view of the matter,

186

INEQUALITY AND MATERIAL PROGRESS.

however, was peculiar to himself, it would not be worth while to refer this second time to it.

But

it is

by no means peculiar
given his
into
his

to him, or to

those taught by him.

may have
woven
itself
it

Mr. Spencer no doubt own expression to it, and
;

own system
a

but

it

was
comhis

a scientific or

quasi-scientific

monplace
in this

when Mr.

Spencer

was

in

perambulator.
it

Macaulay, for instance, treats

way.

He

lays

it

before his readers

something that was already a platitude to the initiated, even if it still were a paradox to the vulgar and in so doing he anticipates not
as
;

only Mr. Spencer's sense, but almost one of

Mr. Spencer's sentences. Mr. Spencer says, as we have seen already, Before the great man can re-make his society, his society must make
'

him?
the

'

Macaulay

says,

It is the age that makes

man, not the man that makes the age. Great minds do indeed re-act on the society that has

made them what
with
interest

they are; but they only
they have received.

pay
. .

what

.

The

inequalities of intellect,

he continues,

*

like

the inequalities

of the surface of the globe, bear

INEQUALITY AND MATERIAL PROGRESS.

187

so small a proportion to the mass, that in cal-

culating

its

great revolutions,

it

may

safely be

neglected.
is yet

The sun illuminates

the hills while it

below the horizon ;

and

truth is discovered

by the higher minds a little before it is maniThis is the extent of their fest to the multitude.
superiority.
reflect

They are

the first to

catch

and

a

light

which, icithout their assistance,
visible to those

must in a short time be

who

lie

far beneath

them.'
is

1

Such, then,

the view of the matter which
is

modern

science tells us

to supersede the

vulgar view. In the study of progress individual great minds may, as Macaulay says,
*

Mr. Spencer says, we should learn nothing of value, even if we * read ourselves blind over their biographies.'
safely be neglected,' or as

They

do,

it

appears, but hasten,
'

the discovery of the truth,
their assistance

by a little, which without
'

society

would have found out

for

itself.

In a former chapter I have dwelt astounding doctrine, to show by
thinkers have
1

upon

this

it

how modern

overlooked an

Essay on Dryden.

188

INEQUALITY AND MATERIAL PROGRESS.
I

entire science.

am

recurring to

it

now,

for
in

a somewhat different reason, to show
itself
it

how

is

utterly

at

variance with

facts.

When
come
theirs.

saints

go astray, they are generally the

worst of sinners.

When men
is

of science belike

inaccurate, there

no confusion

Keeping, then, in our minds those facts of progress we are dealing with the growth of

commerce, the introduction of steam-power, and so on, together, by implication, with the

knowledge required for their accomplishment, let us ask which of them society could have accomplished by itself? Could it have discovered America?
the art of printing
?

Could

it
it

have invented
have discovered

Could

the law of gravitation, or the distance of the
earth from the sun
?

Or
4

lastly,

could

it

have
'

written Mr. Spencer's

Could
or
If

it

System of Philosophy have done any one of these things

?
?

has

it

done any one of these things?
it

any one thinks

could, I can hardly dis-

cuss that point with

him

;

but I can at
has.

all

events ask

him

to see if

it

Men who

INEQUALITY AM) MATEKIAL PROGRESS.
pride

189

themselves on pursuing the historical

method, will surely do well to consult the
facts of history.

Let

us

take,

then,

the

discovery

of

That event, as we all know, was in one sense an accident. It was the result of an
America.
attempt to discover a new route to the Indies Now suppose the opinion of every man and

woman

Europe had been asked on the matter, while Columbus was planning his expedition what numerical proportion of them
in
:

would have had any opinion at all? How many would have comprehended what such a
route meant
?

How many

of those

who

did,

would have thought such a route possible? And

how many

of those

who thought

it

possible

would have been

willing to risk anything in

an attempt to see whether it were practicable ? Any one who has studied the state of society,
of knowledge, and of opinion at that time,
will

have

little
;

difficulty in

arriving

at

a
of

general

answer

and

the

biography

Columbus himself
detailed

will give

them

still

more
dis-

information.

So far from the

190

INEQUALITY AND MATERIAL PROGRESS.
of Columbus

coveries

having been in any

way

the

work

of European society generally,
society was, until

the vast majority of that

they had taken place, in

the

profoundest

ignorance as to the very fact of their being contemplated and of the small minority who
;

knew
them.

of their being contemplated, most were

indifferent,

and many No doubt it

hostile to the idea of

Spencer and by others, born with the idea of his discovery ready-made in him. Its development may be traced to
his settling in Lisbon,

by Mr. that Columbus was not
said,

may be

where

his brother

was

already a maker of naval charts, and where

he married the daughter of an Italian naval adventurer and here it may be said that he
;

received into himself the knowledge and the
spirit of

him.

the discoverers that had gone before But in the first place these discoverers

were

in

themselves
at large

picked

men

amongst
;

an infinitesimal minority and in the second place, even of these, to those

mankind

whom Columbus
projects

knew, his

beliefs

and

his

were either a stumbling-block or a

INEQUALITY AM) MATEKIAL PROGRESS.
revelation.

191

Here, then,

is

a plain and inpast, or

controvertible fact.

Whatever

what-

ever contemporary circumstances

may have

gone

produce Columbus, when he was produced he was the single individual centre from which light and power emanated for a
to

certain great achievement.
tially

He was
its

essen-

not a part of his age, but beyond his

age

:

he was

its

schoolmaster, not

pupil

:

and on August

3,

1492, the cause of one of

the greatest events in history was not, as Mr.

Spencer would have

it,

diffused over

Europe

generally, but, confined to the limits of one

narrow quarter-deck, was watching the bar of Saltes slowly fade from his vision, and
.

was

for a time departing out of

Europe

alto-

gether.

us take another example from those I have already mentioned. Let us take

Again,

let

Mr. Spencer's
us

*

'

System of Philosophy
criticisms

:

and

let

theory to that.
if

great-man from them, that appear Mr. Spencer really holds by them, he canIt will

apply his

of

the

not consider himself to be, in any important

192

INEQUALITY AND MATERIAL PROGRESS.

sense, the author of his

own volumes.

He

is

the origin, of course, of the mere manuallabour

involved in them
little

;

but for the rest he has been
writer, taking

more than a shorthand
what

notes of

society has dictated to

him

;

and
the

he

is

as little himself a philosopher in

vulgar sense of the word, as a newspaper reporter is himself the whole House of Com-

mons.

The idea
obvious

in Mr.
;

Spencer's

mind

is

sufficiently

I

have no wish to caricait

ture
I

it

;

and there is

in

also a truth

which

am

directly about to recognise.

Mr. Spen-

cer's error lies in putting a third of the truth

for the

whole; and, because

had neglected that
first

men previously one- third, now revengIn the

ing himself by denying the other two.
place, then,

no

man

in these days

any

longer imagines that a man, however great, is independent of the times he lives in. Unless

a vast

amount of knowledge had been
Mr.

Spencer himself could never have speculated as he has done.
already accumulated,

Thus

society, in a certain sense,

we may admit,

has certainly

made him.

But having admitted

mEQUALITY AND MATERIAL PROGRESS.
this,

193
first,

there arise two distinct questions
is
it

:

in

what sense

that society has

made

him ? and secondly,
distinct

in considering the cause

of his philosophy, can he as an individual, and

from

society,

be

left

out of count ?

Mr. Spencer's works, if there is one thing that strikes one more immediately than another, it is the supreme

Now,

in reading

contempt displayed by him everywhere for the He can hardly opinions of society generally.
touch upon any question without bringing forward some instance of the ludicrous misbeliefs

that at present prevail regarding

it

;

nor does he find his misbelievers amongst the unlettered classes only, but amongst men who,

however faulty may be their theories, are, so far as fame and genius go, amongst the most
remarkable of his contemporaries. Now, I am not for a moment saying that in most cases

Mr. Spencer may not be right, and those whom he criticises wrong. All I want to
insist

on is
is

this.

If of the society, of

which Mr.

Spencer

himself a part, and which, accord-

ing to his

own

theory, has

made him, an over-

194

INEQUALITY AND MATERIAL PROGRESS.

whelming majority, does not only not believe his philosophy, but is still wedded to the
most opposed to it, it is plain that whatever Mr. Spencer represents, he canfallacies that are

not represent that society as a whole.

If

he

represents anything outside himself, and this

he no doubt does, he represents only a certain
select part of
it.

He

represents, that

is,

a

minority which
majority.

is

struggling with a refractory
if

In other words,

he refuse to be

thought influential as being a great man himself, he is influential as representing a certain
knot of great men.
Secondly, to this knot of great
are his

men what

own

relations ?

He

has imbibed from

them a

certain view of things in general, and

he has made himself master of an enormous

which these men, in the first But after that, what has instance, collected. he done with them ? He has certainly done

amount of

facts,

something, or he conceives himself to have done something. He has not left matters in
the exact state in which he found them.
the contrary,
if

On

we may

take the opinion of a

INEQUALITY

A^

MATEKIAL PROGRESS.
people,

195

number of

intelligent

he has done
;

and it something of very great importance can hardly be doubted that himself he shares
this view.
is

Here, then,
not

is

Mr. Spencer,
representing

who
the

influential

only

as

thoughts of a minority, but as having added

an

important something to these thoughts

himself.

What,
?

therefore,

are

we
is

to

say

about him
is

In proportion as he

influential,

he not a great
himself
the

man ?
cause

And

is

he not, as
?

such,

of his influence

Perhaps he would say, were the question thus put to him, that he was merely a tool in the

hands of circumstances, and that
played
his
it

if

he had not

part

someone

else

would have
this

played

for

him.

But what would

mean ?

might mean two things. It might mean that anybody would have been equal to the task Mr. Spencer has himself performed
It

which is plainly untrue and that anybody would
;

have performed his way which

it is

had

it

happened

to

come
;

in
it

plainly untrue also

or

might mean that had Mr. Spencer not existed, there would have been another man equally

02

196

INEQUALITY AND MATERIAL PROGRESS.

great instead of

him

which, so far as the
is

great-man theory goes,
great
case.
It
is

man

simply to put one for another, and does not alter the

just

as
it

plain,

therefore,

in

Mr.

Spencer's case, as
that he
is

Columbus, the cause of the achievement with

was

in that of

which

his

name

is

associated

;

and the same

will hold good of all other great o o

men whatlittle

ever.

Let

me

dwell, however, a

longer

on what we here mean by cause. Let me repeat once again that I know as well as Mr.
Spencer knows, and acknowledge as fully as he acknowledges, that the things accomplished

by any great man, could not have been accomplished by him independently of his circumstances.

But

it is

equally true, and

it is

a far

more important

truth, that his circumstances

could not have accomplished them indepenColumbus could never have dently of him.
crossed the Atlantic
if

he had had no

sailors

with him
try to

;

but it

is

simply a piece of idle pedan-

name

the sailors amongst the causes of
it.

his crossing

Sailors are essential to all voy-

INEQUALITY AM) MATERIAL PROGRESS.
ages.

197

Columbus was

essential to this voyage.
all

Again, in Mr. Spencer's case,
of his philosophy

the materials
to his
little

may have been ready
to

hand.
original
still

He may have had
work
in putting to

do very
together.

them

But
;

that

work had

and the man who

be done by someone did it has been as much and
it,

as truly the cause of

as a

match

is

of a

conflagration.

Suppose, for instance, that Mr.
fire,

Spencer's library caught

and that the

manuscript was destroyed of some new volume of his philosophy. If he wished to ascertain

what was the cause of the catastrophe, he would
not inquire as to the nature of the paper he

had written upon, and say that his book had been burnt because paper was highly inflammable
;

but as soon as he discovered that

there had been a match on his writing-desk

which had been ignited by accidental friction, he would then be satisfied that he had found
the true cause.
farther.

He would

care

to

go no

match,
person

He would not ask who sold the who made the match, or who was the who first invented matches. He would

198

INEQUALITY AND MATERIAL PROGRESS.

rest content with the fact that a
itself

match was

in

a thing possessing certain qualities, and
it

that

would

ignite

under certain circum-

stances.

Now, the composition of a match,
it

and the circumstances under which
ignite, are so familiar to

will

Mr. Spencer that he

would not need
was
this

to inquire into them.

But
rare

not so

were matches

very

natural products, which were found in certain
places

nobody yet knew how, and went

off

nobody yet knew why, all his inquiries, as a scientific student, would centre on the genesis
of the match, and the circumstances of
ignition.
its

with great the case is Mr. Spencer, then, likes to If exactly similar. here is a simile at once trivial degrade them,

And

men

and accurate to his hand.

He may
:

call

them

the lucifer matches of the world
case, I tell

only, in that

him

that the conflagrations these

matches cause, depend for their occurrence on what the heads of the matches are made

and the kind of surfaces they go That is to say, they depend on the
of,

off

upon.

lives

and

the characters of the great

men

themselves,

INEQUALITY AXD MATERIAL PROGRESS.

199

and must be studied
biographies

in

these great men's

in their biographies, not singly,

but taken one with another, and examined by the comparative method. If this examination

shows us no points of resemblance between them, then we can no more explain the events
the great

men have

initiated,

we can no more
fire

connect them with other events and circumstances, than

we

could connect a
if

with the

common

order of nature,

any

stick of

wood,

with something black at the end of it, no matter what, could become a lucifer match.

And in

one way,

let

me remark, this is the exact
It is as yet unexplained,

state of the case.

with regard to any individual birth, why the child born is a male or female ; it is equally unexplained, indeed it seems even more inexplicable,

why

one child

is

born a potential
dunce.
bio-

genius, and

its

brother a potential

Though, however, we can, neither by
graphical

nor other studies, arrive at any general law with regard to the production of potential genius, we can arrive at a most
distinct general

law with regard to

its

develop-

200

INEQUALITY AND MATERIAL PROGRESS.
into actual genius
;

ment
of

and the biography

every great

least,

who

every great man, at has helped forward material prothe following special fact in

man

gress

exhibits
it.

support of

Every great man who has either opened a new line of commerce, enriched the world with

new invention, or enslaved for man's use some new force of nature, has always been
a
actuated, not solely but largely,
for social inequality of

by the
is

desire

some sort.
;

Let us turn
to the

once again to Columbus
point
especially.
is

his

case

I

have admitted already
such a nature that

that there

a certain class of achievements

which are

in themselves of

they bring, as it were, their own inequality with them, and that the hope of this in some
cases has nerved

men to
it

achieve them, without

any hope added
so called.
this class,

to

of social inequality properly

Now,

any achievement belongs to one might certainly have thought
if

that such

would be the discovery of a new world. But let us consider the facts of history,
the facts of

human

nature.

Columbus, the one

LN-EQUALITY

AXD MATERIAL PROGRESS.

201

man of his age who could conceive this splendid project, the one man with patience, with hope,
with courage to carry it into execution did he find the splendour, or the use of it, sufficient
motives in themselves to induce him to undertake it?

His biography shall answer for him.

He

had, as everyone knows,

many

difficulties

to battle against
tion, incredulity

apathy, ignorance, superstibefore he could gain
as begin his venture
;

assist-

ance to so
all

much

but to

these he added another of his

own making,
prove should be at

and that was the immense personal reward he

demanded
successful.

for himself should the venture

He demanded that he
title

once ennobled with the
Seas,

of Admiral of the
title

and that

this office

and

should be

hereditary in his family, that he should have
one-tenth of
all

the merchandise brought back

from the countries he should discover, and a right to an eighth part of the expenses and
consequent profits of each trading transaction that should hereafter take place with them.
It will

thus be seen that, beyond the ambi-

tion of the discoverer, there

was the

distinct

202

INEQUALITY AND MATERIAL PROGRESS.

ambition in him of a
his family
this
till
:

man who

desired to raise

and the importance, as a motive, of ambition may be gauged by the fact that,
it

the prospect of gratifying

was held out
1

to him,

he refused to move a step towards the
his great enterprise.

accomplishment of

Now

in

Columbus we have a perfect type

of the action of

human
is

nature in promoting

impersonal progress, or to be wholly typical, it
sire for inequality

if in

any way he

fails

not because the de-

was

so prominent
it

among

his

motives, but because
so

was accompanied by
If

many

motives besides.

we study

the

any enterprise or invention, the purpose of which has been either the manuhistory of facture of wealth or the exchange of
it,

shall find in the lives of all the great

we men

concerned in
1

it,

desires equivalent to those of
all discoveries,

It

is,

of course, not meant that

such as

those of Columbus, have been motived by the desire for social The recent polar expeditions, for instance, have inequality. been motived mainly by scientific curiosity. The discovery of
is cited here as an event simply in the material of the world and it is specially valuable as showing progress that not even the accidental glory attached to it obviated the

Columbus

;

necessity of

some more material motive.

DfEQUALTTY AND MATERIAL PROGEESS.

203

Columbus

for his share in the

commerce of

the Indies, and for the proud position he asked
for his

own

family.

We

shall find a distinct

desire for social inequality of

some

sort

;

it

may be one of money only, it may be one of rank only, or it may be one of both and the more
;

exclusively useful

is

the purpose of the enter-

prise or the invention, the
shall

more exclusively

we

find

tliis
it.

desire for inequality to be
It

the motive of

may, no doubt, be said that a number of the most important inventions

owe

their origin, in one sense, to events
little else
is

that have been

but accidents.

That
accifirst

of glass, for instance,

said to

have been

dental altogether, and the steam-engine

became
ness.
1

self-acting

through a
cases,

little

boy's idle-

But these

and

the numerous

1

ally to be regulated

Newcomen's steam-engine, it is well known, used originby a boy, who had to open and shut an

injection-cock at each stroke of the piston. But at last a boy named Humphrey Potter contrived a catch attached to the

beam
'

of the engine,

by which the

automatically.

We may

injection-cock was opened note that the boy called this catch a

scoggan,' by which he ' to idle< to ' scog in the

or shirk work.

meant an apparatus that enabled him North of England meaning to skulk, Thus even this boy was motived by the desire

204

INEQUALITY AND MATEEIAL PROGRESS.

others like them, do not

make

against

what

I

Such happy accidents, such triumphs of a chance ingenuity, add nothing in
saying.

am now

themselves to the general wealth of the world.

Whether the discovery be a new substance or a new mechanical contrivance, it has in the
first

place to be perfected, and in the second

place to be multiplied and introduced to the
public.

Until

it

has undergone this double
is

process, so far as progress

concerned,

it

is

Progress depends not on inventions and discoveries only, but on the extent to which these are applied to the

unborn,

it is

non-existent.

world

in general. It is in the perfecting, the pro-

ducing, the multiplying the things discovered

be they glass, or printed matter, or gas-lighting, or railways, or whatever we like it is in this, so far as the world is to name
or invented

concerned, that material progress
labours of the

lies

:

and the

men we

are concerned with have

been labours in

this field.

Let the reader consider for a moment three
of leisure, a thing that can only exist where there are social
inequalities.

INEQUALITY AND MATERIAL PROGRESS.
of the above-named
printed
matter,
cases,

205

namely, those of

gas-lighting,

Amongst the
scholar,

earlier

and railways. printers there was, no

doubt, prevalent

much of the ambition of the and much of the instinct of the artist

;

and

to us this

may seem more
shall

conspicuous in

them than the
But not only
this
last

desire for inequality in

we

find that in

money. them even
shall

desire
it

existed,

but

we

find

also that

increased in their successors in

exact proportion as printing became cheaper,

and books were multiplied.
gas-lighting
is

The

history of

altogether analogous.
is

That an

inflammable gas
the process of
first

evolved from coal during
destructive distillation

its

was

discovered by a clergyman hi 1739.

The

fact
the

was published

in

'

The Transactions of

Royal Society] and it soon engaged the attention of other well-known experimentalists.

But more than half a century had elapsed
after its first discovery before

any one thought
;

of

making

and even
practically,

any practical application of it after it had been first applied
twenty years elapsed before that

206

INEQUALITY AND MATERIAL PROGRESS.

practical application

was completed and

intro-

duced to the public. During that period it had been applied only to one house in Cornwall, one factory near

Birmingham, and on one
Nothing

occasion

to

one London theatre.

more had been done, and this was the reason. The fact in question and the invention based
upon it had been not yet seized upon by men who were able to make money by them. In 1813 they were so seized upon. The matter
passed into the hands of a regular commercial company, and almost instantly there were gas-

lamps

all

over Europe.

The

history of the

railway engine and the extension of the railway system, both point to conclusions in the same
direction,

which are almost too obvious

to

The railway require our dwelling upon them. engine was perfected by the patient and competing labours of a the

number of men, who had

all

same motive, and that motive was the The more carefully we desire to make money.
study the details of the question the more profoundly will this fact be impressed upon us
;

whilst if

we

turn from the construction of the

INEQUALITY AND MATERIAL PROGRESS.

207

railway engine to the extension of the railway system, the names of Brassey, of Brunei, and of Stephenson, will
to us.

cany their own

instruction

Evidence of
indefinitely
;

kind might be multiplied but any reader of ordinary inforthis

mation will be able to supply it for himself. He need only turn to facts which he knows
already

on one

side,

examine the other.
ventors,

and reversing them, That discoverers, inmerchants,
all

manufacturers,
at wealth,

of

them aim
attain
it, is

and the most successful

a truth as trite as that the sun
;

rose yesterday

but

its

full scientific

signifi-

cance has never yet been recognised. The attainment of wealth by such men when successful has

been regarded rather as a usual accident of their case, than an essential factor
in
it
;

and thus the Democrat can argue plausibly that it is an accident, a chance
result,

which

in the future it will

to obviate.

But

this

be possible view of the matter is

wholly unscientific, and the real principle involved in it is lost sight of altogether the

208

INEQUALITY AND MATERIAL PROGRESS.

principle that while the attainment of wealth
is

the general result of the success, the desire
is

of wealth

the invariable motive of the enproposition
as to

deavour.

The

the result,

and the proposition
so
closely

as to the motive, although

connected, are
first,

things.

The
is

if

wholly distinct separated from the
all.

second,

not a scientific generalisation at

It is simply a statement as to

what has hap-

pened hitherto, but need not happen always.

To say

that wealth
is

is

the general result of

industrial success,

to refer to nothing but
;

existing social conditions

which, for

all

that

the statement

be altered to any But to say that the desire of wealth extent. is the invariable motive of it, is to refer to
tells

us,

may

human

nature

itself,

and to lay down

a

permanent and a universal law.
All, then, that I

need ask the reader to do,

is

to look at the reverse side of

what he knows

quite well already.
ventors,

The

discoverers, the in-

the merchants,

the manufacturers,

whose

have marked epochs in the history of material progress, have not only made
lives

INEQUALITY AND MATERIAL PROGRESS.

209

wealth but they have been made by it. If wealth had not been attainable, the genius of

such
It

men would have been wholly undeveloped.
practically non-existent.

would have been

It

would have been an acorn, not an oak.
the earth
is

What

is

to the acorn, the desire* of

inequality

such men's genius. In proportion as inequality has been possible, that genius has developed itself; in proportion as
to

inequality has been impossible, that genius has

been unapparent. So intimately indeed is it connected with the special desire in question,
that
its

practical effect on the material pro-

gress of the world could be almost expressed
in terms of that desire itself
its
its

definiteness,

strength,

and the nearness or remoteness
it.

of the object of
it is

Every observation that
in the matter confirms

possible to

make

and

illustrates this great general law.

Our
and
find

materials for observation
past and

we

find both in the

present, in different countries

different stages

of civilisation

;

and we

always and everywhere the same law acting. But we must not content ourselves with

P

210

INEQUALITY AND MATERIAL PROGRESS.

appealing solely to the width and the solidity of this inductive basis. Some may feel themselves
still

able to argue that the desire for

inequality,

whatever
is

may

have

been

its

function hitherto,
ditions,

capable, under

new

con-

of being

replaced

by some other
will

desire,

which as a motive

same

results.
its

Now if this

produce the contention be worth

worth depends on its relation to observed facts, and the motive it refers to
anything,

must be some motive
can be
question
this
is

in particular.

What
to

motive

?

The answer

the

obvious, as only

one has ever

been proposed, and only one is in the smallest degree plausible. The motive that it is said by

some
is

is

to supersede the desire for inequality,

the desire for the welfare of the
is

human

race

at large. It

general benevolence, as opposed

to private selfishness.

Let us therefore ask on
rests,

what

scientific

foundation the opinion
will really

that this

new motive

do the work
is

of the old one?
itself to refute

To ask

the question

in

the opinion.

Actions motived
sufficiently

by benevolence have been

marked

INEQUALITY AND MATERIAL PEOGRESS.
in

211
their

history to

show us

clearly

enough

constant limits and purpose.

This purpose

has never been the creation of

new forms

of

wealth

;

it

has been simply the alleviation of

the existing pains of poverty.
relieves those in

Benevolence
it

want or

sickness,

provides

instruction and even

amusement

for those
It builds
it

who
hos-

would be

else

without them.

pitals, schools,

and almshouses, and
:

gives

playgrounds to the people ends. There is nothing inventive in
It

but there

its
it.

work

may prompt men
;

to give a

water to the thirsty but it will to manufacture a new liqueur. It

cup of cold not lead them

them now

to give a

may prompt man some tobacco poor

;

but supposing tobacco unknown to Europe, it would not lead them to introduce it from
America.
Is it conceivable that benevolence,

before the days of railways, could have

made
from

anyone burn to send

his fellows travelling

London

to

York

at the rate of a mile a

minute?

Or had the most ardent

philanthropist, before

the days of telegraphs, been considering the lot of a happy family in the country, would

P

2

212

INEQUALITY AND MATEEIAL PEOGEESS.

the wish ever have occurred to

him

that he

could add to

happiness by placing it in communication with every city in Europe?
its

The answer

and our certainty in the matter comes from our wide experience
is

plainly, no

;

of what benevolence has accomplished hitherto.

That experience is all we have to go upon and any belief in the matter not supported by
;

nothing better than an idle piece of dreaming. Experience teaches us that as a
that,
is

motive to action, benevolence is excited by one
class

of things only

privation, pain, or

any

marked want of pleasures already enjoyed by
others
;

but except for the purpose of attackevils, it is

ing such

powerless to produce either
It

practical thought or labour.
flutter the

may perhaps
;

wings of fancy, and suggest Utopias

where man has conquered nature entirely but it never awakens that creative imagination which shall grasp a scheme of conquest
in

any of

its

practical details

;

still less

can

it

rouse that strong and dogged resolve which
alone can push such schemes to any successful
issue.

INEQUALITY AXD MATERIAL PROGRESS.

213

As

regards, then, the impersonal progress

of the world,
established

we may
firstly,

consider this

much

to be

that such progress is so far

caused by certain gifted individuals, that without their intervention it would be impossible

;

and secondly, that
impossible
unless
;

their intervention

would be

social inequality

motived by the desire for to which we must add that
except in a society
is

have been utterly unproducible except in a society constructed on the principle of inappear further, from the various examples that have been cited, that whatever changes such progress may have
equality.
It

will

brought with
this

has brought no change in but respect to the human character
it,

it

;

that,
is,

on the contrary, the desire for inequality

not only as a motive, as necessary

now

as

214

INEQUALITY AND MATEEIAL PROGRESS.
its

ever, but that

action

is, if

anything, even

greater and

more apparent.

Perhaps, however, the Democrats will urge
that the impersonal progress of civilisation has

advanced

far

enough already.

They may say,
it

in fact, as Lassalle distinctly did say, that

can be never suffered to come altogether to a standstill, and that personal progress is the

and while granting that sociaHnequality has been requisite to
sole progress of the future
;

bring the world's annual output of wealth to its present state, they may say that it is not
requisite

now
has

for maintaining

it

in the state to

which

been brought. The business started through inequality can be carried on
it

through equality. That position
examine.

we

will

Having

seen

now proceed to that we could not
let

have advanced without inequality,
if,

us see

without

it,

we

should not directly retro-

grade.

215

CHAPTEE

IX.

INEQUALITY AND THE MAINTENANCE OF
CIVILISATION.

hardly necessary to repeat that the entire civilisation we are speaking of, especially those
IT
is

features of

it

which the Democrat most values,

depends altogether on the division of labour. This we may accept as an axiom. Certainly, no Democrat can doubt it. Without division
of labour not a single train could run, not a

newspaper could be printed. If articles of value could be produced without it at all,
single

they would be the rare luxuries of the rich, not the necessaries and the comforts of the
poor.

More hands

are concerned in producing

a yard of printed cotton than in producing a yard of tapestry in producing a yard of
;

drugget than a yard of Wilton carpet in producing a pewter mug in a pot-house than
;

216

INEQUALITY AND THE
Cellini.

a gold goblet by

Indeed, the more

popular, the more essentially democratic is the

product,

the
its

more

is

division

of

labour

involved in
is

production.

Division of labour

very foundation-stone of the ideal democratic commonwealth. Without it popular thought could not diffuse itself, and popular
intercourse

the

would languish, except between near localities. As a consequence of this, not
only would
the

people lose the power of

combination, but they would lose also their Local ignorance, local joint wish to combine.
prejudice, and above all local interest,

would
;

again divide what

is

now

only partly united

and

as our

modernJDemocrats not only know,

but acknowledge, in proportion as peoples are pitted against each other, they become of
necessity subject to

some military despotism

or aristocracy.

We

thus see that, putting aside altogether

any question of further impersonal progress,
every thought, every aspiration of modern

democracy,

rests,

and must

rest,

upon a

per-

petual division of labour.

The question we

MAIXTEXAXCE OF CIVILISATION.

217

have now to consider
to

is,

how

is

that division

be perpetuated. As to one point,

we

are perfectly clear
its

already.

Division of labour, alike in

origin

and

its

maintenance, must have been always

the result of a certain set of motives, supplied

by external circumstances, and applied

to the

human
to

character.

And

this brings

me back
opening
before

a remark which I

made

in

my

chapter, namely, that political

economy barely

overlaps the borders of the inquiry
us.

now

Division of labour, indeed, as approached
side, is the

from one

main subject with which
;

the political economist deals
causes of
it

but as to the
little

in the

human
'

character, the

he does say only serves to show us how much This division of labour,' he has left unsaid.
writes
so

Adam

Smith, for example,

l

from which
not origi-

many

advantages are derived,
effect

is

nally the
foresees

of any

human wisdom, which
opulence
to

and
it

intends that general

which

gives occasion.

It is the necessary,

though very slow

and gradual consequence of a

certain propensity in

human

nature, which has

218

INEQUALITY AND THE
;

in view no such extensive utility
to

the propensity

truck,

barter,

or

exchange

one

thing for
be

another.

Whether

this

propensity

one of

those original principles in

human

nature, of
.

which no further account can be given ... it It belongs not to our present subject to inquire.
is

common

to

all

men, and

to

be

found

in no

other race of animals'

Smith
;

illustrates this

in a

few brief paragraphs

he then dismisses

the subject altogether, apparently wholly unconscious of its extent and importance nor do
;

any of

his successors

seem

to

have been more

clear-sighted, or to

mentioning to his
tions.

have added anything worth crude and meagre observanot that the
insufficient

The

singular part, however,
is

is

propensity Smith mentions

an

explanation of the beginnings of the division of labour, but that the beginning of that division should be all that

he attempted to ex-

One might have thought that having plain. asked himself how it began, he would have
been led naturally to ask himself developed, and finally how it is

how
still

it

was

main-

MAIOTENANCE OF CIVILISATION.
tained.
'

219
'

It gives occasion]

he observes,

to

general

opulence] but this opulence, he ex-

pressly states, has

no direct connection with

the propensity to truck, barter, or exchange.

How,

then,
?

produced
or as

has the general opulence been It has not been produced auto-

matically, or

by accident. Some new motive, Smith would say, some new propensity,
in
it.

must have been concerned
this

What can
and with
is

be

?

Smith observes,

it is

true,

great justice, that division of labour

the
It

cause of the diversity of men's talents.
enables one savage to perfect himself as

a

hunter, another to perfect himself as a tanner,

and another

to perfect himself as a
;

maker of

bows and arrows

but the only occupation and the only talents he names are those necessary for procuring the bare means of existence.

What, when these means are supplied
abundance, has caused labour
to

in

sufficient

still

continue,

and

still

further

to

dif-

ferentiate itself
this last

that he never inquires.

Had

question ever occurred to him, he
it

would have found that

fixed his attention

220

INEQUALITY AOT) THE

on a wholly new order of facts. He would have seen that the division of labour proper to
savagery, and the division of labour proper to
civilisation,

were marked

off

from each other
In the
first

by two points of
the former, as
at producing

difference.

place

we have just noticed, aims

only
;

the bare means of existence

but the

latter begins exactly

where the former

ends, and aims at raising on a sufficiency of the

means of existence a superstructure of wealth and luxury. In the second place, and this is

more important

still,

the former involves only
;

variety, or co-ordination of labours

the

lat-

ter involves inequality, or subordination also.

To maintain savages

in a state of stationary
:

competence, labours need only be various to produce or maintain civilisation, they need
not only be various, but unequal. Thus in providing a savage village with food, the

hunter and the maker of bows and arrows,

though they play
parts.

different, yet

play

equal
as the

Man for man,

one does as

much

other.

But in constructing a railroad, a navvy
for

and an engineer, man

man, play parts that

MAIXTEXAXCE OP CIVILISATION.
are wholly unequal.
affects

221
latter

The labour of the

the whole undertaking;

that of the

former, perhaps only a millionth part. may say, therefore, that so far as labour

We
is

concerned,

and savagery differ from each other in this way that whereas
civilisation
:

both are equally based upon the simple division of
it,

the former, as distinct from

the

latter, is

based on the division being graduated.
division of
it

Thus presuming the

in

any case,

we may

say that the special and distinctive cause of civilisation is not the division but the

graduation of labour. It is the graduation of labour that is the cause of the railway and the

newspaper.
that enables

It

is

the graduation of labour
fellow-feeling to spring

any

up

between peoples, or makes even the dream of democratic solidarity possible. And on it
every hope and prospect of the modern Democrat depend.

Our present
:

inquiry, therefore,

resolves itself into this

To what cause

in

human
due
?

nature

is

this

graduation of labour

What, when some men are shepherds,
is

or carters, or dock-labourers,

the cause of

222
other

INEQUALITY AND THE

men

being skilled mechanics, or elecengineers, or chemists?

tricians, or

Why,
so

when on
so
little

their

labours

some men expend
others

thought,

do

expend

much?
The
already,
cause, I have said over and over again
is

the desire for social

inequality.

Thus
For

far,

however, I

answer.
this

I

am now

have only stated this about to substantiate it.

purpose there are abundant materials

lying on every side of us, which

by the comus,

monest observation we might, any one of
seize
It

upon. be spared even this trouble for they have been already collected by others, and are
;

happens, however, that

we can

arranged ready to our hands

;

and that

in the

very quarter where, from what I have just been saying, we might least expect to find them. I allude to the writings of the great
political economists.

Political economists, as

I have already said, hardly so

much

as ask
;

the question

we

are

now
its

considering
it,

and

even when they have

asked

shown no conception of

they have importance, and

MAINTENANCE OF CIVILISATION.
only a very imperfect conception of
its

223
nature.
it

The reason of
is

this,

however,

is,

not that

remote from the subject of their own inquiries, but that it is so very near to it.
so

They do not

see

it

indistinctly for the former
it

reason, but they overlook

for the latter.
is

All the while, as
their feet.
It is

it

were,

it

lying under
;

beneath their ken

it is

be-

yond which the

it.

One of the

principal questions with
is

political economist deals,

why
;

different labourers are paid at different rates

and he explains the
to see that

fact

by

reference to the

existing conditions of society.

But he

fails
is

what he regards

as a result

in

reality the universal cause also.

He

gives us

elaborate reasons

why wages
it

are paid in pro-

portion to skill; but
that the graduation of
is

never occurs to him
as a universal rule,

skill,

developed in proportion to wages. To prove, however, that such is really the case, we have

but to repeat a process which I dwelt upon in
the preceding chapter;
invert the facts

we have simply
political

to

which the

economist

supplies us with, and refer

them not super-

224

INEQUALITY AND THE

ficially to society as

he does, but fundamen;

tally to

human

nature

and we

shall thus find

them

to

be but so

many

particular examples

of a law, which in a confused

way he must

no doubt presume, but which he has never
adequately recognised, or
to formulate.

made any attempt
will explain

The following passages
'

my
of

'

meaning. reckon our soldiers

We

do

not,
the

says

Adam

Smith,
set

most industrious

people

among

us, yet

when

soldiers have been

employed in some particular sort of work, and liberally paid by the piece, their officers have
frequently
been obliged
to to

stipulate

that

they

should not be allowed

earn above a certain
to the

sum

every day, according

rate at which

they were paid.
. . .

Till this stipulation

was made

the

desire
to

of greater

gain frequently
to

prompted them
in touching
'

overwork themselves, and

hurt their health by excessive labour.'

Again,

on the question of slave labour, the experience it appears,' Smith says, 'from of all ages and nations, I believe, that the work
done by freemen comes cheaper in
the

end than

MAINTENANCE OF CIVILISATION.
the

225

work performed by slaves;' and Professor Thorold Eogers, in a note to this passage,
gives

the

following
'
:

fact
is,

in

explanation
that,

of as

Smith's remark
the slave
to

It

of course, plain
to

has no motive

economise his labour

do

the greatest possible

work with

the least
7

possible exertion, slave labour is always costly.

Here again is another passage from Smith, and another note by Professor Thorold Eogers
'

:

This great increase,' says the former,

'

of the

quantity of work, which, in consequence of the
division of labour, the

same number of people are
is

capable of performing,
circumstances
:

owing

to three different

first, to the

increase of dexterity
secondly,
lost
;

in every particular
ai'ing

workman;
is

to

the

of the time which
species of

usually
to

in passing

from one
to the

work

another

and

lastly,

inventions of a great

which facilitate
<>ne

number of machines, and abridge labour, and enable
the
*

work of many' To which Professor Thorold Eogers adds Smith has
to

man

do

:

omitted

to notice

another important consequence
to

of the process referred
sion of labour

in the

text.

The

divi-

makes

it

possible that the different

Q

226

INEQUALITY AND THE

agents in the joint product should be remunerated
at different rates
;

whereas, if the process were

begun and completed by the one man, the commonest or easiest labour bestowed by him would have to be paid at the rate of the highest and
hardest'
these passages deal with this one

Now,
fact, that

all

the amount and quality of labour

done by a

man

are related in some

way

or

other to the amount of reward offered him.

But only

in the first case

is

the least attempt
this relation
is.

made

to state explicitly

what

In the case of the soldiers paid by piece-work, Smith puts, no doubt, the matter in the right

way.

He
as
;

represents the inequality in the rethe

ward

the cause of the inequality in

work

but the slight and cursory stress which he lays upon the doctrine shows how little he
its

realised either
whilst,

importance or its universality
to the other

;

when we come
Smith's
text

two

pas-

sages

and
it

Professor

Thorold

Eogers' comments on
distinct

this doctrine in

any

form

is

lost sight of altogether.

Slaves,

we

are told, will always exert themselves but

MAINTENANCE OF CIVILISATION.
little,

227

because they have no motive to exert themselves much. Professor Thorold Rogers
says this
It is
is

a plain fact.

But why

is it

plain

?

not plain as a fact of observation certainly, because most of us have never seen any slaves,
little
is

and know very
plain only, if
it

about them.
all,

It

can be

plain at

as being a deall

duction from a

known

universal law, that

labour, whether that of slaves or other men,
is

proportionate to the magnitude of the moor that unequal reward
is

tive,

the cause of
is
'

unequal labour. Again, when it as a matter of great importance
ferent agents in
the

mentioned

that the dif-

given product should be
rates,
it is,

remunerated at different

of course,

understood that in this

way we
so
is

save money,
to be

and the

fact that

we do
is
it

presumed
one.

as plain to us as the preceding

But

again

we

ask

why

plain

?

Only because,

or in so far as

it is

plain to us, that

we can

produce the lower kinds of labour by a low rate of wages, and that we can produce the
higher kinds of labour only by a high rate. That is to say, we have another tacit reference

Q2

228
to the

INEQUALITY AND THE

law just mentioned of unequal rewards,
its

and another tacit assumption of

universality,
all

We

might go through the works of

the economists

who have

ever written, and in

almost every illustration taken by them from any branch of industry we should find the

same

thing.

We

should find the same uni-

versal law either illustrated or tacitly refer-

red

to.

It is true

we should

find further that

the reference was only tacit, and the illustrations only semi-conscious.

On no

one occa-

sion should

we

find the

law distinctly stated,

dragged forth from the dim regions of implication, and showing itself in intellectual daylight.

And

this is the reason theorists,

why

the

modern

though they acknowledge the doctrines of the economists to be
democratic
true in the present state of society, conceive

we can change
true no longer.

society so that they shall be

In other words, as I have twice

observed already, they refer these doctrines For to society, and not to human nature.
this

error the economists are themselves to

blame.

Their science, as they present

it

to us,

MAINTENANCE OF CIVILISATION.
is

229

a science upside down.
air.

Its

roots, its first

principles, are in the

been planted in their
uniform,
facts of the

They have never proper and solid soil the
the
ascertainable
character.

the unalterable,

common human

they been so some hundred years ago,

Had much

of the democratic speculation of the present

century would have been well-nigh impossible, and the world might have been spared in con-

sequence

many

vain expectations,

many

bitter

disappointments,

much bloodshed

in the past,

and not a

little

danger for the future.

Men

be persuaded that a revolution can metamorphose society it will be harder to

may

easily

;

persuade them that it can create a new human nature and this last is the only revolution that could fundamentally alter the existing state
;

of things.

But though the economists, as I say, have failed to show this themselves, the facts they
have collected afford an overwhelming proof of it. They have examined carefully every branch
of industry on which our existing civilisation

depends,

and

in

every

branch

they have

230

INEQUALITY AND THE

encountered the same phenomenon, namely, that unequal reward goes with unequal labour, and
that

when

the rewards are equal the labours

are equal also.

The ascent from these

multi-

tudinous particulars to the universal law, when once it has occurred to us to make it, is the work
of a moment. Since where there
in the
is

reward labour never

rises

no inequality above its sim-

plest or its

there

is

most necessary forms, and where inequality in the reward it does rise
it

above them,

follows that inequality in the re-

ward
is

is

the cause of this rise in labour.

That

to say, the

human

character

is

so constituted

that without the desire of this inequality as a

motive, the higher forms of

skill,

or even of
It
is

application, are wholly unproducible.

not that

men would

not choose to produce

them, but that they could not produce them. Just as a woman is the proper cause of a man's
falling in love,

so the inequality spoken of

is

the proper cause of a man's developing
in labour
this
;

skill

any other cause but could make him develop it, would be and
to say that

about as true as to say that, in the absence of

MAINTENANCE OF CIVILISATION.
a

231

woman, he would be made

to fall in love

by

the table-cloth.

There are many truths which until they have been formally stated all the world may by implication reason from, and yet consciously be so
little

aware of their nature, that

even the gravest thinkers at times may by imOnce, howplication utterly ignore them.
ever, let the formal statement be

made, and
question,

the whole case changes.
like the angel sent to

The truths in

Balaam, suddenly stand before us, barring our intellectual path, and whether we will or no they compel us to take

heed of them.
things happens.

Then one or other of two

We

either at once recognise
;

and
is

assent to

them unbidden

or else an assent

wrung from us by our being made to face

the alternatives.

A

truth of this kind

is

the

one
that

we
it

are at present dealing with.

Now

has been distinctly stated, let the reader ask himself if it is possible to contradict
it.

If

he can contradict

it,

he can do so for

one reason only

only because he has some

other proposition which he can put in place of

232
it.

INEQUALITY AND THE
If the desire for social inequality be not,

cause of the graduation of labour, something else must be and that
said, the
;

as has

been

something
motive.

else

must be some other human
that

What can
are

motive be then
can

?

There

only

two

which

be even

plausibly mentioned.
a feeling
for the

One

is

benevolence, or
his best

which prompts a man to do
;

community
feels

the other
for his

is

the pleasure
in

which a man

own sake

doing

the best of which he feels himself to be capable.

be for a moment possible to ascribe the graduation of labour to either of
Let us consider
if it

these motives.

As

to benevolence, in connection with in-

ventors and discoverers,
that already;
itself,

we have dwelt upon
that,

and we have seen
it is

by

even with those men,
a motive.

utterly power-

less

as
it

Much more

then shall
If

we

find

to be so in the present case.

it is

unable to rouse even genius into activity, so as to nerve a single man to increase the wealth
of millions,
it is

hardly likely that
skill,

it

will

have

a greater effect upon

and produce equal

MAINTENANCE OF CIVILISATION.

233

labour for the sake of infinitely smaller results.
If
it

were not the cause of Columbus's

dis-

covering a

new

continent,

it

will

hardly be the

cause of a clerk's learning book-keeping by double entry. Indeed, the very conception
that a man, in the world either of

commerce

or production, should attempt to develop his

from a sense of universal benevolence, would have been too fantastic to be even
faculties

worth considering, if modern positivism had not actually suggested it. If any one thinks otherwise, let

him put

his opinion

to

a homely

Let him go where he will, through the whole civilised world to London,
practical test.
to
in

Birmingham,

to Paris, or to

New

York, and

any grade of any branch of business, let him do what he can, amongst all the skilled employes, to discover one

out of benevolence.
a

who performs his work Where will he find such

Does he suppose that an enginedriver on the Great Northern Eailway is con-

man?

sumed with a
see

desire that Cockneys should

Edinburgh ? Or that the captain of a Cunard steamer is an apostle of international

234

INEQUALITY AND THE

commerce?
have any

Or

that telegraph clerks need

but apathy with regard to the benefits arising from a quick transmission of messages ? Or supposing that he actually here
feeling

and there did meet a man who professed and even felt some of these grand and promising
sentiments,

would he

find that such

men gave
as agri-

their services gratis, or at

any rate took no

more from them than they could earn
cultural labourers
test at
?

There we

may
;

find a
it

once simple and conclusive

and

will

apply equally to the other supposition also, that the graduation of labour is due to a
natural tendency in a

man

to

do the best he
satis-

can with
faction.

his talents, for his

own personal

For

if

either this tendency or else

benevolence were the cause of the graduation of labour, and not the desire for inequality in reward, then skilled labour would

be as cheap as unskilled.
a

An
;

experienced

ship's captain, for instance, could

be had for
it

common
true

seaman's wages
is

which,

need
It

hardly be said,
is

certainly not the case.
it is

now

as ever, indeed

even more

MAINTENANCE OF CIVILISAT10X.
true, that labour

235

must be rewarded
;

tion to

its

excellence

proporor there will else be no
It is

in

excellence to reward.

not only that on

no other condition
his faculties
;

will the labourer develop
will

but on no other condition

he use them when already developed. Xor can any one urge that this present state of
affairs is

due to our
nature.

social arrangements,

and

not to

human

For

if

human nature

were ever really capable of being motived to skilled production by anything but the desire
for inequality,

arrangements could tend so strongly as ours do to bring 'that
social

no

capacity to the surface.

It is
all

the notorious

wish and endeavour of

modern employers

to secure skilled labour at as
as possible.
If,

cheap a rate therefore, skilled labour can

be really motived by benevolence, or by any other motive except the desire for inequality,
the labourers of to-day have
afforded

every

facility

them

for to

making the

fact apparent.

They have only

do willingly the very thing which their employers would make them do
;

and which they with a vigour that increases

236

INEQUALITY AND THE

every day declare they will never dream of
doing.

Perhaps, however,
to
this,

it

will

be said in reply
labourers
if

that

though
all

skilled

at

present doubtless get

they can, and

they

can get

much

refuse to

work

for little, yet

this covetousness
tial

on their part has no essenconnection with their skill but that our
;

social arrangements,

cause
sion

its

though they do not indeed existence, are none the less the occaexercise.
said,
its

of
it

its

They give

to

skilled

labour,

may be

an opportunity for the

time being to dictate

own

terms,

much

as a

lodging-house keeper does during the height
of her seaside season
;

and just

as the lodging-

house keeper will be reasonable when she is unable to be extortionate, so will skilled labour
be when our social arrangements are altered. It seems not impossible that this answer might
be given but if any one thinks that it really meets the case, he may reflect for a moment on
;

the following obvious fact which, obvious as
is, is

it

skill

very often forgotten. When we speak of in production, be it of whatever kind

MAINTENANCE OF CIVILISATION.
that of the artisan, of the engineer, of the

237

man

of science, or the business manager

we have

not to deal with a thing that
existence
disposal.
this
is

if

once called into

once for

all

put at the world's
all

On the contrary, moment in operation,
gone
;

of

it

that

is

at

in another forty

years will have

and

have

perished

and within that period all of it, from utterly the very beginning, will have had to be recreated
in

a

new

race of beings.

Man's

nothing but a castle of sand, for ever dissolving, and for ever being heaped up
civilisation is

again

;

and were the

latter process

for but one half-century, the fabric

suspended whole of the vast

would have sunk
are the the

to a shapeless ruin.

Where and what moment, who in

men

at the present

next generation will be dispelling the darkness with electricity,
scattering truths or falsehoods to all the winds

from the printing-press, and conquering

dis?

tance by the railway or the ocean-steamer

Some

of

them are

in their cradles,

some

at the
;

infant school

Some of them cannot speak
spell
;

few of them yet can

none of them

238
practically

INEQUALITY AXD THE

did
as

;

or as

know more about steam than Adam much of geography and navigation

Ulysses.

By
;

patient effort they have to

learn everything.

The

task

is

not easy for
it is

any of them

for

some of them

arduous

in the extreme.
it

None of them can accomplish except by their own will by their own will
its

forcing

way through
is

difficulties.

By what
forti-

motive, then,
fied ?

this will to

be roused and

bare subsistence can be gained by and millions the simplest form of labour
;

A

never attempt to

Why
No
so
;

themselves for any other. should a minority thus elect voluntarily
fit

to fulfil functions of this exceptional character

?

external power can possibly
for until they themselves

make them do
can
tell

have chosen to
that

show

their talent,

no one

else

they have any talent to show.

It rests
it lie

with

themselves to develop
If,

it,

or to let

fallow.
its

therefore, skilled labour can dictate
if
it

own
itself

terms now, and

refuse
it

to exert

must, as long as civilisation continues, always be equally master

except for unequal wages,

of the situation

;

and

until the

human

charac-

MAIXTEXAXCE OF CIVILISATION.
ter shall
it

239

have been altogether revolutionised,
its

will

always continue to use

advantage

similarly.

The foregoing observations
the reader thus

will

have shown

much

that the inequality in

reward which

at present always
is

the graduation of labour,

in

accompanies no way the

accidental result of existing o

social arrangeo

ments, but

is

the necessary result of the con-

stitution of the

human

character.

Even
;

yet,

however, the argument is not closed it may still be open to the objector, while he admits
the above truth, to urge that in the future the

human

character

may

change.

Mr. Herbert
;

Spencer, for example, does say precisely this

and the theory, in loose terms,

is

parroted on

every side of us. What shall we reply to it? As regards Mr. Spencer the dispute can be settled easily for unless he has much misre;

presented his

own meaning,
which
it

the change in the
of,

human

character which he speaks

he

re-

gards as a thing

may

take ages to acit

complish
is

;

indeed, the period he requires for
calculation.

apparently quite beyond

With

240

INEQUALITY AND THE

him, therefore, for practical purposes, there can be no discussion. In incalculable time,
incalculable things

may

happen.

But

if

any
this

thinker

ventures to be more definite, and,

clearly stating the change

which

is

at
it

moment

in

question,

maintains

that

will

occur within any time that is appreciable if he maintains that in twenty-five years, or in
fifty, fifty,

or even in a hundred, or a hundred and

the desire for inequality will have not

only ceased to be operative, but that some other motive will be doing its work instead of
it,

then at once

we

shall

know what

to say to

him.

We

shall ask him, if

he can, to show us

any sign whatever either

in the present or the

past, or in the present as past,

compared with the

which may lead us to think that such a

change is even possible. In the present, as we have seen, there is no such sign apparent on the contrary, the desire for inequality is,
;

as a motive,

more powerful now than ever
is,

;

and whatever change there
other direction.

is

in just the

Perhaps, however, in the

eyes of the sanguine Democrat, this in itself

MAINTENANCE OF CIVILISATION.

241
ask
for.

may seem one He may argue
if it

of the very signs

we
it

that the desire for inequality,

were

less in

the past than

is

in the
it

present,

may

in the future

be

less

than
it

was
not

in the past.

Plainly,
;

he

will

say,

is

constant but variable

and who

shall fix the

limits of its variation?

But the glimmer of
it
is

hope afforded by

this

argument fades instantly
inspect
closely.

when we come

to

The

desire for inequality, there

not the smallest

doubt, has at various times varied -very widely but it has varied only as in its importance
;

related to other motives

;

it

has not varied as

related to productive labour.
at times,

Other motives,

may have very nearly eclipsed it, but when this has been the case we shall always
find infallibly that productive labour has

been

nearly eclipsed also

;

and conversely, whenever

productive labour has risen into importance and has eclipsed other occupations, in exact
proportion

we

shall find that other motives

have become eclipsed by the desire for inThis has apparently been true in equality.
every age of the world
;

and, unlikely as

it

242

INEQUALITY AND THE
at first sight seem, in the ages of slavery

might

as well as in those of free labour.

The history
will

especially of slave labour in

Eome

throw

on the question a long and continuous light. We shall there be able to trace the exact

phenomenon
shall

I

have been speaking
in proportion

of.

We

see

how,

as a taste for

luxury was developed, and slaves began to be looked to as agents in skilled production,
the unequal rewards to which
for a slave to aspire
it

was

possible

became

steadily greater

and more numerous.

Let us turn, in short,
fact
will

where we
itself.

will,

the same

present

The

desire for inequality,

and

efficiency

in skilled production, always rise
fall

together

;

and

if

and always the Democrat insists on

appealing from the present to the past, history will only repeat to him, with still greater emphasis, what his
suffice

own

observations might
It will

by

itself to

teach him.

show

him

that, so far as

we

are guided in our hopes

and opinions, by any method of observation

known

either to science or to

common

sense,

we have

absolutely

no ground

either

for

MAINTENANCE OF CIVILISATION.
'thinking or hoping that the

243

human

character
in
this

within

any

calculable

period

will,

respect, either

The

desire for

change or even tend to change. inequality itself may, no doubt,
;

dwindle some day but if it do so, production will dwindle also, and our material civilisation
will wholly, or in part, vanish

from

us.

That

even more than possible. We may lose some day both the desire and the civilisaevent
is

but we shall never keep the latter in any state of society which does not excite, and
tion
;

which does not gratify the former.

Our examination, however, of the causes
by which
complete.
civilisation is maintained, is not yet

We

have thus

far dealt only with
;

the highest grades of labour

it

still

remains
all

for us to deal with the lowest,

on which

the rest are based, and without which they

would be wholly powerless to exert themselves. Now the motive, as I have said already, that
produces the lowest grade of labour
desire
for
is

not the

inequality,

it

is

the desire for a

subsistence; and such labour, as I have said

already

also,

has no

natural
2

tendency

to

R

244

INEQUALITY AND THE
all.

subserve civilisation at

When

savages

have produced enough to

satisfy their neces-

sary wants, they are as wholly incapable of

producing anything further, as if, after that point, their entire bodies were paralysed.

They are
ness,

raised out of this state of helpless-

and the rudiments of a faculty for civilised labour are added to them only by some such process as that symbolised in our parable
of the stranger and the islanders.
in

A minority,
to

some way or
;

other,

must apply force

the majority

it

must

virtually possess itself

of the food-supply of the latter; and in this

way

motived by the want of food to do more than satisfy the
is

cause the labour which

wants by which

it

is

motived.

Historically,

this application of force

and

the institution of slavery

began with conquest and as its ope;

ration there

must be

plain to even the least

careful observer, I will ask the reader again
to direct his attention to that.

We

have hitherto considered the existence
inequality

of social

simply as supplying a
desired to rise.
If,

motive to

men who

how-

MAINTENANCE OF CIVILISATION.
ever,

245

we
it

look at the case of slavery,

we shall see
way
also.

that
It

acts

upon labour

in another

not only supplies motives, but it conditions motives. common slave received no more

A

food in his servitude than he would naturally have secured for himself in his freedom. He

by no new object of but merely by the fact that what he desire had desired always, was now so placed that

was roused
;

into industry

he had to take a new road to get to it. And the changed position in which he thus found
himself,

was

essentially

a position brought

about by force. He not only himself had no wish to be put in it, but he could not have

put himself in
so.

it,

even

if

he had wished to do

could not possibly, by any endeavours of his own, have so applied to himself his own
desire for food that
it

He

should cause him to do
naturally required to

three times
satisfy
it.

the

work

servitude,

The added power which, in his this motive had over him, was a

power derived from a source wholly external to himself not from a desire for any inequality
on
his

own

part, but

from the pressure put on

246

INEQUALITY AND THE

him by an inequality already achieved by
others.

Now
is

in the case

of an unskilled slave,

during the early stages of progress, this fact
obvious.

All civilisations, as I remarked in

a former chapter, have

begun against the

will

of the majority of the
in them.

human beings concerned
first,

Social inequality, at

has been

always inequality in force, or, if we like to put it bluntly, it has been neither more nor less

than oppression. But when we pass from the ancient world to the modern, from the age of
the slave to the age of the free labourer,
it is

not perhaps obvious, as regards this special
question,
transition.

what has

happened

during the
in

How,

in the

manner

which the

motive to labour acts upon him, does the unskilled free labourer differ from the unskilled
slave
?

In

many

of his circumstances he, of

course,
sold
;

differs

profoundly.

He

cannot
;

be

he can move from place to place he can choose his own work, and his own master
;

above

all,

savings last

he can save, and as long as his him, no living being can compe.
7

MAINTENANCE OF CIVILISATION.

247

But whenever, and in so far as unskilled labour is being done by him, he is essentially in the same position as

him

to labour at

all.

the slave
in such a

:

the labour he
that
it

is

doing

is

motived

does more than satisfy That is, the wants by which it is motived.

way

whenever he produces anything, he is obliged to produce more than personally he has any
wish to produce or more, in other words, than he would be able to produce without some external force acting on him. Here then,
in our latest civilisation,

we encounter

the

same

fact

which we have just noted

in the

earliest.

We

finoLthat the lower forms

of

labour can be
application

made productive only by the of force in some way to the

labourer.

It appears, therefore, that in the

gradual abolition of slavery, what has really happened has been this. The force that once
resided hi one dominant class has gradually

passed from that into the structure of society
generally.
to be at the

The

unskilled labourer has ceased
;

mercy of a master

but the force

that the master once applied to

him

caprL-

248
ciously,
is

INEQUALITY AND THE

now

applied to

him

instead

by

his

environment, and that not capriciously, but with the regularity of a natural law. We thus see that the greatest of all
social

whole

changes that has ever taken place in the conditions of production, has not connoted the

very smallest change in the constitution of
the

human

character.

To produce the same

amount of labour, the same motives and the same force must be applied now as ever and
;

the only change or improvement that has ever

taken place, has not been in the things applied, but merely in the method of the application.

The maintenance" _^
..^^^
_

of civilisation, then, de-

^p
T

pends upon two^ processes the constant dggelopment of the higher forms of labour, and the
constant intensification of the lower
;

and

in

each case equally the cause that operates is In the firstj, it operates by proinequality.

ducing a desire for itself in the labourer in the second it operates by exerting a certain,
;

In the one case it atpressure upon him. But in tracts, in the other case it propels.

both cases, in one way, what

it

does

is

the

MAINTENANCE OF CIVILISATION.
same.
In both cases
it

249

endows the labourer

with powers which, in its absence, would be wholly wanting in him. In its absence there
could be no continued industry, just as in
absence there could be no developed
If
its

skill.

we would

ever scientifically grasp the great

social
this

problem, we must never lose sight of Man's power of fundamental truth.

producing more than a livelihood depends upon causes that are without him, and not
within him
tially,
;

and these causes

consist

essen-

and they always have consisted since the earliest dawn of history, in some arrangement, more or
inequalities.
less effective, of

marked

social

250

CHAPTER

X.

INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.

WE have

now

considered the world's material
its

civilisation
its rise, its

under each of
progress, and
its

three aspects,
;

maintenance
the cause of

and
it

in each case

we have found
for,

to

be either the desire
of,

or else the pressure

inequality.

In the absence of this cause,
;

civilisation

has been also absent
it,

with the

decline of

civilisation

has declined.

With

regard then to the future, the deduction is inevitable. Any social changes that tend to
abolish inequalities, will tend also to destroy

or to diminish our civilisation.

This statement, however, must be taken

with certain limitations, or
easily distorted

it

may

else

be

thinker.

by a perverse or a slovenly Although where there are no inbe no
civilised

equalities, there will

produc-

INEQUALITY AM) SOCIAL PROGRESS.
tion,

251

and where there are inequalities there will be civilised production, it is by no means

meant that production always increases
equalities, or that
it

in

exact proportion to the magnitude of the in-

need always be diminished in exact proportion to the diminution of them. Thus under the old regime in France, as the
inequalities

became

greater,
less
;

it

is

notorious

and conversely, in the same country, as the inequalities have become less, the production has become
that production
greater.

became

To any

one, however,

who

has un-

derstood the foregoing arguments, this will

seem only natural.

Inequality influences pro-

duction not by existing only, but by existing as an object of desire on the one hand, and as
a

means of pressure on the
skilled

other.

over the

labourer

power on the depends
;

Its

chances he has of achieving it its power over the unskilled labourer depends on the way in

which
the

it

first

can apply pressure to him. Now in case, if inequality be too hard to
its

achieve,
will

influence, as
little

an object of desire,
it

be almost as

as if

did not exist at

252
all
;

INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.

and

in the second case, if its pressure be
it

too severe,

may
it.

cripple labour in the very
Its efficiency, therefore, as

act of causing

the cause of civilised production, will increase

with

its

magnitude only within certain

limits.

Further, these limits will themselves vary considerably in different cases.
different in

They will be England from what they are in
in the United States.

Ireland

;

they will be different in China from

what they are
difier

They

will

according to

the

temperament,

the

and the occupations, of each But these differences will be separate people. altogether accidental. Precisely the same
political history,

principle will be found to underlie

all

of them.

Inequality, as

it

increases, will in every case

increase production, until

by

its

magnitude

it

begins to cause despair or indifference rather

than hope in the skilled labourer ; and misery and weakness instead of resolve in the unskilled.

As soon

as

it

increases beyond this
;

point production will diminish

as soon as

it

decreases towards this point again,
tion again will increase.

produc-

This latter process,

INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL PROGKESS.

253
aboli-

however,

is

no movement towards the
;

tion of inequality
set
it

on

its

on the contrary, to broadest basis, and not to lessen,
it

tends,

but merely to distribute the
affords, therefore,

effects

of

it.

It

no exception
:

to the general

law we have arrived at that any social changes
that tend to abolish inequalities will tend also
to destroy or to diminish our civilisation.

Now
us
as a

this,

very

likely, in

the present con-

dition of thought, will at first strike

most of

somewhat disheartening conclusion. To the Democrat, of course, if he ever be
brought to assent to it, it must be the deathblow of all his hopes but when it is bluntly and nakedly put before us, it may dishearten
;

many who

are very far from being Democrats.

For with regard to the poorer classes, what it means is obvious. It means that until the
world
again
relapses
into

barbarism their

own

distance from the rich can never be ap;

preciably diminished

and, further, that

in

such a relapse they would not rise towards riches, but the rich would sink towards poverty,

and they themselves would sink towards

pri-

254

INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.

vation.

our

first

however, instead of yielding to impressions, we examine scientifically
If,

the real facts of the situation, the most ardent
philanthropist need find
little

cause in

it

for

disappointment.
Material civilisation
is

a desirable thing for
only because,

one reason only.

It is desirable
it

and

in so far as,

If riches
able,

human happiness. were supposed to make men miserincreases
distri-

no Democrat would ever wish to

bute them.

He wishes to

distribute

them only
;

because he believes they make men happy and he wishes to distribute them equally because he believes that happiness
is,

in a general

way, proportionate to them. Now it is on this last belief that our whole view of the question
depends.
If
it

really seems to us a dishearten-

ing reflection that

we

always with us,
believe this

it

poor can only be because we

shall

have

'

the

that the poor man, as such,

must

be always unhappier than the rich man, and that his life will be pitiable in exact proportion
to his poverty.
I said,
it

will

be recollected,
in the creed

that this belief was the

first article

INEQUALITY AM) SOCIAL PROGRESS.
of

255

modern democracy, and that creed, I said further, was accepted by many people as a misgiving who would repudiate it indignantly
as an affirmation.

But

if this

be true, as I

believe
it is
it.

it is,

of the democratic creed in general,
this particular portion of

yet
It

more true of

has often been remarked that, in the

history of

modern sentiment, one of the most

prominent features is the wide development of pity, and by pity is meant generally a recog-

and moral misery in the world, together with a wish that such misery Now misery of both might be alleviated. kinds is no doubt greater amongst the poor than
nition of the physical

amongst the rich and modern thought, fixing itself on that fact, has in a very singular way
;

arrived at two conclusions
is

firstly,

that poverty
;

the cause of the bulk of

secondly, that the

human misery and bulk of human misery can

only be alleviated by some general equalisation of existing material inequalities. Thus in the
present condition

of

things

that feeling or

wish which
lence
is

is

commonly

called pity or benevo-

not really a single wish, but a double

256
one.

INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.

To
is

the wish that miserymight be alleviated

there

added a second wish as to the special means for its alleviation, namely, the wish for
;

social equality

and these two so instantly coa-

lesce that in the popular

mind

cult to distinguish them.
effect

very diffiWhether this be the

it is

of the
it

avowed democratic movement,
be the cause of
it, is

or whether

beside our

present purpose to inquire.

us here to recognise that,
other, the

enough for by some means or
it

It is

benevolent sentiment, as

now

exists in the world, certainly has

allied itself

with the wish for social equality, not only those who think social equality atamongst
tainable,

but even amongst
its

many who

alto-

gether despair of
If,

attainment.

however, we except the doctrine that the cause of wealth is labour, there has never

been a fallacy with regard to social subjects so great as that which the above alliance is
nor until the world in general has learnt utterly to discard it will any sound conbased upon
;

ception of

the social problem be

possible.

What

is

requisite in this case for a right under-

INEQUALITY AXD SOCIAL PROGRESS.
standing of the truth
is

257

nothing more than was requisite in the question of wealth and labour.
It is

simply to apply the inductive method ac-

curately, to blot out for the time every picture

of the imagination, to silence for the time every

whisper of sympathy, and to observe the facts of life, on which the points at issue turn, as they
actually are and have been.

Those
;

facts are

of a perfectly unmistakable order
the facts of

they are

human

happiness as affected by

material circumstances, and
tically

we have

all

prac-

such unlimited means for

observing

them

that the task before us will be to arrange

rather than to collect our evidence.

What,
In the

then, does this evidence teach us ?
place,
it

first

teaches us that amongst

the very richest of

men numbers have

lived

and died

full

of disappointment and bitterness,

and that amongst the poor numbers have lived and died contented. This fact, though so o
*

wholly lost sight of in the social speculations that have marked the present century, is yet
in itself so notorious

that

it

and so nearly self-evident would be almost an impertinence to S

258

JNEQUALITY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.
it

support

by

special instances
is

;

and not

less

evident than the fact itself

the general in-

ference that inevitably follows
follows from
it

from

it.

It

that however, in

many

cases,

happiness
riches,
it

may be

increased

by an increase of

does not necessarily bear any proportion to them, and that if the poor as a rule
are less

happy than the

rich, this

is

not due to

their not possessing luxuries, but to

some other

cause of a wholly distinct nature. Should this seem a hard saying to any one, he may easily test the truth of it by an appeal
to his

own

experience

;

and

if

he be a rich

man, and accustomed to luxurious living, he will be able to do this only the more readily.

Such a man,
at
all,

as soon as

he begins to

reflect

how, within limits, luxury is wholly relative. That is, he will see how the very same material circumstances which he
will see

would think miserable on one occasion, he will think luxurious on another. He travels, we
will say,

from Paris to Nice

in a sleeping-car,

and he looks on himself
luxury, because he
lies

as in the very lap of

on a spring mattress,

HTEQUALITY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.

259
to

and because he has a whole compartment
himself.

Suppose, however, at his journey's end he were offered a bedroom at his hotel

which was the exact facsimile of that compartment, and instead of a place of luxury he would think
if
it

a

stifling

den.

Or let him
life

take,

he

is

a sportsman, his

own

as a deer-

and compare it with his life as a man of fashion in London. Whereas in London,
stalker,

probably, he will hardly venture out in a shower, and will take a hansom sooner than

walk a furlong,

in

Scotland he

will think

nothing of either fatigue or weather. He will exert his muscles more, he will face greater hardship than the commonest day-labourer
;

and the man who in Piccadilly would barely put his foot in a puddle will lie by the hour on the damp ground in Inverness-shire. And yet if he compare his two modes of life together
his life as a deer-stalker

and his

life

in

the world of

London

he

will see that, in his

own

opinion and that of the world in general, the former is as much a life of luxury as the
latter,

and

is

even more distinctive of the
s 2

260
richest

INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL PKOGRESS

and most luxurious

classes.

If,

then,

the rich man,
living,

who

is

accustomed to the

softest

can thus find the hardest living to be actually at times a luxury, he will scarcely be
able to doubt that the hardest living to the poor

man need not in itself be any cause of misery. 1 What makes it difficult for the rich at first
to realise this
is

that they naturally look at

the matter through the distorting the imagination.
fact, as

medium

of
in

They look on the poor,

rich people ruined, and conceive of

them
1

as missing comforts that they
be also noticed that, in
all ages,

have never
held

It

may

many have

the opinion that not only does poverty not necessarily make men unhappy, but that it is in itself, and apart from accidental evils, more calculated to make them happy than riches are.

O fortunati nimium,
Agricolae
!

sua

si

bona norint,

expresses a view by no means confined to Virgil. It is a proverbial saying in our own day, that when a rich man complains

of unhappiness, the best advice to give him is to live on sixpence a day. and earn it and curiously enough the very Democrats
;

and Radicals, whose chief occupation

is to

hold the rich up to

envy, are perpetually sneering at them, as though they were The above opinion is no doubt as false, in a objects of pity. general way, as its opposite. I only note its existence to show

how

loose

and inaccurate

is

current thought with regard to
it.

the whole question involved in

INEQUALITY AXD SOCIAL PEOGKESS.

261
side,

even heard

of.

The poor,

too,

on their

do an exactly similar thing.
rich through the
also,

They look on the
of the imagination

medium

and just

as the rich attribute to

them

a

wholly imaginary misery, so they attribute to the rich a wholly imaginary happiness. In
this,

however, as in so

many

other cases,

it is

the chief function of scientific thought to correct the beliefs
distorts for us
;

which the imagination thus and if we only surrender our-

selves here to its clear

we

shall

and impartial guidance, see the foregoing conclusion to be

altogether indisputable.

Happiness and the possession of riches, unhappiness and the want
of riches, are not in any
relative.

way

necessarily cor-

The bulk,

therefore, of

human

un-

happiness has nothing whatever to do with the existence of social inequalities, nor is there
the least reason to despair of the world's future

merely because these inequalities can never be done away with.

What

shall

we

say, then,

when wretched

cases reach us, of destitution,

and hunger, and

squalor, and pain from cold

?

What

shall

we

262

INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.
of the

say of the foul, unhealthy houses

crowded courts and alleys
our poor are lodged
obvious.
?

in

which millions of
shall say
is

What we

We

shall say that these evils are

caused by want, not that they are caused by
inequality.

We

shall

say that misery
is

is

miserable, not that

inequality

miserable.

The

sufferings of the

their having little

poor are not caused by as compared with the rich
;

but by their having
the simplest
in

little

as

compared with
It is

demands of human nature.

no way a sad thing that one man should be dining off turtle and ortolans, and another

man

off a plate of
is

beans and bacon.

What

is

a sad thing

should be dining off turtle and ortolans, and another man have
that one
all.

man

next to no dinner at

So, too,

it is

in

no

way
\
1

a sad thing that one

man

should live in a

palace, and another

man
is,

in a small cottage.

What
llive in

is

a sad thing

that while one

1

lives in a

healthy house, so

many

other

man men

unhealthy ones. Once let the poorest of the population be sufficiently clothed and
fed,

and so lodged

as to

be free from

filth

and

INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.
fever,

263

be perfectly possible then that the poor, taken generally, may in point of happiness be as well off as the rich.

and

it

will

What, however, if this be the case, becomes of the main fact dwelt on in this
volume, namely, the influence on

human action
?

of the desire for social inequality

If the

unequal distribution of wealth has so little to do with the unequal distribution of happiness,

how can

the desire for an unequal share of

wealth be the one great motive that produces and maintains civilisation? To answer this,

we need
of us.
this.

only appeal again to facts of

human

character that are within the knowledge of all
First,
It

however,

let

the reader observe

has not been said that riches and

poverty have no connection with happiness and unhappiness it has been said only that they
;

have no necessary connection.
conditions

Under
;

certain

they are connected

and under

certain conditions they are not connected.

We

have now
are.

to inquire

what these conditions

We

may,

to begin, then, say as a general

264

INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL PKOGEESS.

rule that riches are essential to happiness in

exact proportion as

we

are accustomed

to

and that poverty is necessarily a cause of unhappiness, not because it cannot supply
;

them

us with luxuries, but only when, and in so far
as, it

deprives us of them.

It

thus follows

that the richer a

than the poorer

man is, he is, not happier men below him, but for the

same amount of happiness more dependent on riches. Hence, though he may have no desire
to

become more

rich than he

is,

he

will

have

a very strong desire not to become more poor. He will desire to maintain his inequality,

though he
It

will not desire to increase

it.

The

desire for inequality, then, can take

two forms.

can take the form, not only of a desire to. rise, but the form also of a desire to remain
^"^
*"

^

^

stationary.

It

may

therefore

be a constant

cause of labour, even in cases where no discontent
tion of
it
is

implied in

it

;

and a large propor-

its

power

is

of this latter kind.

When
is

takes,

on the other hand, the form of a
matter

desire to rise, then no doubt the

somewhat

different.

The man who

desires to

INEQUALITY AXD SOCIAL PROGRESS.
rise

265

must, from that very -*

fact,

be discontented
;

to

some degree with

his existing circumstances
is

but when a man's discontent

such that he

can see his way to removing the cause of it, and when it thus becomes the motive of hopeful action, it is a

source of happiness, not a

source of misery to him.

Now

if

we examine

the conditions under which the desire to rise

develops

itself,

we

shall find that the discon-

tent involved in

it is

essentially of this pleasur-

able kind.

The human

character,

it

will

be

found,

is

so constituted that a man's desire for
is

things he does not possess

not in proportion

to their desirableness, but in proportion to the

ease with which they

seem

attainable.

Thus

most country gentlemen would be pleased at being made peers, but their way to the honour

must be more or want of
it

less plain to

them before the
uneasiness.

gives

them the

least

And

in all classes of society a similar thing

holds good.

Putting out of the question cases

of actual want,

man

is

naturally contented
is

with whatever conditions he
until

accustomed to

some better conditions are put before

266

INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.

him, not only by his imagination as being better, but by his reason as being within his
reach.
It will

be found further that when his

imagination and his reason act in their normal

way, these better conditions are rarely very
far in

advance of

his

own.
;

They are a

step

in advance, but a step only

may

and though he know that each step he takes he will see

another beyond that, yet what, at any given
time, his happiness really depends

upon,

is

merely the one he
taking.

is

actually engaged
starts in life

in

Thus a man who

with the

wish to die a prime minister, at first depends for his happiness on being returned to Parliament.

The

desire to rise, in fact,
idle

when

it is

more than an
what
is

wish
;

is

naturally limited to
is

near at hand

and

strong in pro-

portion to the prospects of

its

being

satisfied.

Thus the more operative it is in maintaining and advancing civilisation, the more does it

become an element not of unhappiness, but
of happiness
;

nor does

its

presence in a poor
necessarily miser-

man prove

that poverty

is

INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.
able,

267

any more than

its

presence in a rich

man

proves that riches are.

Here again, however, another perplexity may present itself. It may be asked, if the

human

character be such as

it

has just been

said to be,

and

if

such be the natural action

of the desire for inequality,

how

are

we

to

account for the rise and spread amongst the masses, not only of a desire, but even of a
passion
for equality?

The answer
is

to this
;

question, though complex,

not difficult
in

and

the

full

materials for

it

are

our hands
equality, in

already.

We have seen, then, that
is

the

modern sense of the word,

not equality

in the abstract, but an equality in material

wealth.
actual

We

have seen further that of the
the

wealthy get from wealth the poorer classes have no conception whatsoever. Wealth to them is an object of
enjoyments
desire only, as a supposed

key

to

some

state of

happiness, and a supposed means of out of every known unhappiness. Thus escape equality, as presented by the modern Democrats

unknown

to

the people, means a condition of

268

INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.
all

things under which they will

enter

some

new state
It
is

of existence indefinitely happier than

their present one.

But

it

does not

mean

that
also

only.

means a condition of things
is

which

not only thus desirable, but which,
rapidly and

by a

certain course of action,

certainly attainable.

everyone would like to be indefinitely happier than he is and
:

Now

though the idea of
us but
that
also.
little

indefinite happiness affects
is

usually, that
indefinite
it

due

to the fact

where

it is

it is is

usually remote

When, however,
then
its

presented to us
it

as being near at the
definite,
it

same time that

is in-

indefiniteness does but
:

make

the

more exciting

it is little

being the case, matter for wonder that the idea of
this

and

equality, as presented to us

by the modern

Democrats, should be, amongst the masses who do not detect its falsehood, the most exciting
idea that could be offered to the
gination.

human imathe

For

this

reason

it

constitutes

most

formidable danger that has ever threatened
society
;

and

for this reason

no healthy pro-

INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.
gress will be possible until
in
its
it

269

has been exposed
discarded.

true light, and altogether

Now

power, and therefore its danger, it will be seen from what has just been said,
its

depends upon two

distinct falsehoods

;

one a

falsehood of the imagination, which represents

wealth to the poor as a condition of extraordinary happiness the other the falsehood of
;

an intellectual theory which represents
possibility to
will

it

as a
It

make

this condition general.

be seen further that, apart from this

intel-

lectual theory, the false picture

drawn by the
for the un-

imagination would in

itself

have practically

no disturbing
attainable
is

influence.

A desire

nothing but a harmless sentifalse intellectual

ment, until a

theory repreIt is,

sents the thing desired as attainable.

therefore, with the theory of equality, rather

than with the conception of happiness appealed to by
in this
it,

it,
;

that I have occupied myself

and the point, with regard to that I have tried to demonstrate, has been

volume

once simple and single. I have tried to demonstrate that equality, as the goal of proat

270

INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.

gress, is not practicable or impracticable, true

or

according to the completeness or incompleteness of the meaning we attach to it
false,
;

but that
should

it

is

not a condition to which
efforts to
;

we

make any
it

that, so far

progress,

approximate and from being in any way a goal of is', on the contrary, the goal of reConversely, I have tried

trogression instead.

to demonstrate further, that inequality, so far

from being an accidental
the efficient cause of
its
its
;

evil of civilisation, is

development and of
that the distance of
is

present maintenance

the poor from the rich

not the cause to

'the former of their poverty, as distinct
riches, but of their
civilised
;

from

competence as
if

distinct

from barbarism

and that

ever any

changes that have really advanced civilisation have had the appearance of a movement to-

wards equality, this appearance has either been deceptive altogether, or has been else due to a coincidence, not to any real identity
;

question having been not towards equality, but towards a more efficient

the

movement

in

arrangement of

inequalities.

INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.
It is to the exhibition of this

271

one great I have truth that I have confined myself.
not discussed the various forms that inequality

and I have purposely avoided the question of the position and the function of a class wholly unconnected with production,

may assume

;

such as a landed aristocracy because, though the existence of such a class may, under cer;

supply an extraordinary stimulus to mercantile and manufacturing o it is not essential, as the enterprise, yet plainly
tain circumstances,

case of America shows us, to material civilisation of a very

advanced kind.

Its effects are
;

moral,

rather than directly industrial

and,
I

as such, they

demand

separate treatment.

have, however,

observed already, that the chief feature in the position of a landed aristocracy which the modern agitator has succeeded in rendering odious to the people is,

not

its

unproductiveness, but
it is

its

inequality.

And

as to inequality,

perfectly certain

that the masses see practically no difference

whatever between the commercial or manufacturing
plutocrat,

and

the

peer

or

the

272

INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.

country gentleman
rence,
it is

they do see any difrather in favour of the latter.
;

or

if

Thus, although the arguments I have dwelt upon in this brief volume have not touched

on the question of the uses of a landed
tocracy, they will

aris-

show

that the chief feature

of

it

which Eadicals and Democrats are able
an
evil, is

to exploiter as selves

a feature they them-

would be
if

still

obliged to retain, and in

a form,

anything, even

more marked and

offensive.

But these observations are beside
sent mark.

my
is

pre-

The main importance of a recognot the

nition of the doctrine of inequality,

added security that it would give the rich, but the added hopes of progress it would hold out
to the poor.

Conservatism, no doubt, during

the present century, has
as an

shown
as

itself at

times

obstructive
;

as

well

a conserving

power

but for

this the

party of progress has
If
its

chiefly itself to thank.

schemes for wide

redress of evils and grievances amongst the

poor have been opposed or neglected, as they have been, this has been partly due, no doubt,

INEQUALITY AXD SOCIAL PROGRESS.
to prejudice
;

273

partly,
;

no doubt,

to a mistaken

but chiefly to the fact that these schemes themselves have been based on
class-selfishness

a theory wholly at variance with the facts of human nature, and which the common sense of mankind,

when undisturbed by

passion, has

instinctively recognised as at

once chimerical

and ruinous.
social equality,

In other words, the theory of

by

identifying the hopes of the

poor, with the attainment of a Utopia on the

one hand, and the destruction of
the other, has been

all

society

on

than any other cause, not only in perpetuating, but
influential

more

even in increasing the

evils

consequent on the

modern developments of civilisation. It has made the prosperous poor discontented with
circumstances which would naturally

make

them happy

;

and

it

has shut out the suffering

poor from their best hopes of progress by
teaching them to

mask

their

demand
in a

for

what
for

would

really benefit

them

demand

something that would be the ruin of themIt has placed them in selves and everybody. an utterly
false position.

Instead of making

T

274

INEQUALITY AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.

civilisation the friend of the poor, it

has duped

the poor into making themselves the enemies of civilisation.

never wise to yield to hope too easily but were the modern theory of equality once
It is
;

abandoned and discredited, there are abundant grounds, I believe, for a sober assurance that the cause of the poor and suffering would
receive almost instantly an incalculable accession of strength.

The

wealth, the culture, the

wisdom, the philanthropy, which are
suspicion, if not
instant be arrayed
to oppose

now
in

forced unwillingly to regard that cause with
it,
;

would

an

upon its side and the suicidal movement, which at present passes for progress, would begin to be in reality what it